DxD: DevilsxDemons
by Yorae Rasante
Summary: After his soul sharing the journey to rescue Tokyo with Flynn's, thanks to a request from Louisa Ferre, it is a very different Issei that returns to his own world. He was at least warned that his supernatural is disconnected from the Expanse... for now. Well, that is in no way ominous... At least he has Burroughs with him still...
1. Old Life, New Issei

**Sorry readers, but sometimes you get writer's block… and at least for me the best way to get rid of it is to give a try at writing something else.**

 **I admit not getting far in DxD, neither the animes nor the light novels, yet. Most of my knowledge comes from other fanfics and the wiki, which means they are not 100% trustworthy… but I really wanted to write this crossover someday.**

 **And specially after reading L33t Horo's Shin megami tensei DxD. I did not agree with some of the plot developments, and that plus the base crossover method kept going on in my head, so I asked if I could write my own version of the crossover inspired in that one. L33t Horo agreed.  
And then suddenly I found myself making more interactions between the characters and went in a completely different direction.**

 **Spoiler Alert: In SMT4:A was revealed that the Lucifer in SMT4 was actually part of Satan. I'll keep quiet as to why, but this knowledge is important to the crossover… due to the main crossover facilitator in this story being the Lucifer from the** _ **other**_ **SMTs, where in 2 was clearly established as not only separate but rival to Satan.**

IIIII

Hyoudou Issei is a pervert. That is impossible to deny, and if asked the boy will actually confirm proudly.

But he considers himself a nice kind of pervert. He would never force himself on a girl. He considers them a work of art, to be appreciated. Maybe some, with permission, can be savored, but that only makes them even more special, and he would never _really_ sully them like that without permission.

But he had preferences. As much as he deigned all kinds of women beautiful in their own way, even the flat-chested lolis, it was in the oppais that his heart rested.

Which was why it was really weird for him when, despite the girls his age with big breasts nearby, what caught his attention was a girl a couple years older than him with no visible breasts.

Of course, her platinum blonde hair and silvery blue and red eyes made her seem really exotic, and the silver goat hair ornament contrasted with the purity of her baby-blue summer dress. Her face was so perfect it was unnatural.

But Issei could feel it was something more than her beauty that was attracting him to her. He was so sure he could almost swear that even if she had the oppais of his school's diva, Rias Gremory, he would be looking into her eyes.

She was looking around, as if searching for something… and then her eyes found his.

He could not move as she approached. It was not as if he was paralyzed by her beauty, although he admitted that for anyone else with those looks it would be perfectly possible. No, what paralyzed him was that he felt like prey being stared by a predator it could not escape. Her every move, despite sensual, exuded _**power**_.

"Excuse me," she asked as she approached him. "I'm having a bit of trouble, could you listen to me for a bit? Just listening is enough, you don't need to help me if you don't want."

"Uhm, sure," Issei said, pointing to a bench nearby. Accepting the invitation, the blonde sat down regally. Issei followed, feeling a bit inappropriate.

"You see, I have a sister… who is a bit obsessed with rules. Now, I don't have a problem with that, I believe in freedom, and that includes the freedom to follow the rules if you want. My family considers me a bit of a rebel, because I don't follow my father's words as law like her, but he is such a control freak… ungh, nevermind, I'm ranting."

Issei shrugged. He didn't mind, he couldn't understand the sibling problem but he could annoying parents a bit. His were always complaining he would never give them grandchildren…

"My sister is a bit of a daddy's girl, if you didn't notice. The only times she goes against our father is when she things it would be what father would want her to do if he wasn't him. Now, she wants to do something good for the control freak, but what she planned goes against what he told her to do… so what does she do? She makes up a second personality, so all the guilt goes to it, and to make thinks worse she gives it _my_ name. And to make things worse we used to be so close people _still_ mistake us for the other."

"That sounds annoying," Issei agreed. "But how would I help you?"

"Oh, that's simple. I think someone else confronting her would be able to snap her out of it… or at least enough she'd be convinced to use another name. The thing is, it can't be me or my friends, she wouldn't listen. Needs to be someone she doesn't know."

Issei nodded. "But why me?"

The girl shrugged. "You seemed to be a good enough person to help me, but not good enough not to do things your own way. Not an ass, but not a goody two-shoes either."

Issei shrugged. Made sense.

"I'd love to help, but I need to be home in ten minutes or my parents are going to complain…"

"Don't worry, I promise that they won't even notice you stopped to help me," the girl said.

Issei sighed, but couldn't say no. Not that he wanted, but he was really worried about worrying his parents – he already heard enough complaints.

He nodded, and looked in her eyes to answer.

But as soon as he opened his mouth, he found himself floating above the clouds…

IIIII

Flynn closed his mouth. Well, Issei did. Or Flynn. It had been so many years he barely remembered his original name—

He looked around. Man, did Tokyo look different…

"Did you have fun saving the world, Hyoudou-san?" said a voice by his side. A voice he did not hear in a while, and for a bit even thought it had been his imagination.

Issei looked at the blonde sitting beside him.

Then at the white gauntlet in his arm.

He sighed.

"I forgot to ask your name," he asked, trying to ignore the fact that for him it had been much more than seconds since they last met.

"Louisa Ferre," she said, her voice clearly holding back laughter.

Issei thought for a bit.

"Uh. I admit, even with your warning your sister got me fooled… so both of them were Merkabath?"

"More like she was both me and Merkabath. Her real self is closer to the later though, as much as people think of her as the former."

Issei nodded. Someone people mistook for the woman sitting at his side… "…Satan?"

"That's her," Louisa agreed.

Issei sighed. "So… does that mean you are actually a neutral force?"

"Oh no, I am very much the leader of the opposite of my father's forces. While he pledges despotism, I pledge anarchy, in the visions of Kant. He pledges law as absolute and unbendable, I pledge law as something that is nice to have so we don't have to be savages, but anyone can break if they want – as long as they are aware nothing is going to protect them from repercussions either. I believe myself to be the representation of the oxymoron 'organized chaos'… which explain how I can be the leader of the self-proclaimed forces of Chaos in the Expanse. Because seriously, law is a bore, but without at least some organization nothing could ever be done."

Issei nodded. "Speaking of the Expanse…"

"Your world is completely separated from the one I sent your soul to," Louisa said. "You were basically sharing the body of that world's version of you, aiding him in his journey. I believe the experience you gained from him to be enough compensation on his part. As for on my one…" she pointed to the silver gauntlet on Issei's arm. "As far as you both are aware, the Burroughs in yours is both a copy of all the data and memories of that one and yet linked to this world's… version… of her."

Issei nodded. Burrough's origins were a big surprise for him, he was glad this was both his old friend and the original one.

"Well, I'll be leaving now. Thank you for your assistance." Louisa made to stand up, but then snapped her fingers. "Oh right, almost forgot. While occultism knowledge is the same in this world, it is still self-contained. Instead of a link to the Expanse they have their own demi-planes for the local angels and devils, which are on their own very different from the Expanse's version of them… as are their leaders. So for now keep an open mind, and you may even gain some allies for the future."

Issei frowned. "That sounds a lot like I'll need those allies for when someone opens a passage to there in the future…"

"You might very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment," Louisa answered, standing up and walking away. "Uncertainty is a consequence of Freedom. It may be a blessing sometimes, others a curse, but one thing it is not is monotonous." She stopped and looked back. "Anything else?"

Issei thought a bit. "I just wanted to say that I am a breasts man through and through, but even I must admit your current form's ass is awesome."

Louisa just smiled as she started walking again. "I agree, it is absolutely sinful."

She then disappeared among the crowd.

And then Issei frowned. If the world on its own had no link to the Expanse… how _did_ the Expanse's Lucifer get here? And why? He was sure there would be many alternate Flynns to choose from, why _him_?

He sighed… and to think the last time he was on today all he wanted was to oogle oppais and buy porn…

IIIII

Matsuda and Motohana were worried for Issei.

It has been a couple of weeks since he… changed. Oh sure, he still loved breasts, but he was much more… subdued.

Case in point, when they tried convincing him to go peep in the Female Kendo Team's changing rooms, he agreed… then decided to keep guard instead of peeping.

And, as shown by loud stomps and the furious kendoists glaring at them, not even making a good job of that even.

"Issei!" the two screamed, hugging each other in their fear.

Issei lifted his eyes from his book, looked at the furious kendoists, then at the two perverts.

"Hey guys, the Kendo girls are here to talk to you."

"You were supposed to warn us _before_ they arrived!"

"Oh. Sorry."

The two hugging guys let go of each other, approaching their firend worriedly.

"Ise, are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, first you don't join us to watch girls changing, then when we finally get you to come with us you only stand guard—"

"Poorly."

"And now you're not even scared of what the girls will do to us for peeping."

"…But I didn't peep?" Issei reminded them, confused.

"Do you think they'll believe you?"

"Actually," Katase, one of the girls in the club, interrupted, "since you guys usually push him on our path to escape, I at least can believe it with you two saying it. Really weird though."

"Isn't it?" Motohana agreed.

"Please help us bring him back to normal!" said Matsuda.

"Hell no!" interrupted the girl. "I welcome this change with open arms! The less perverts in the school the better for us."

"Oi!" Issei interrupted back, insulted. "Just because I don't peep anymore does not make me any less worth of the title of pervert!"

"Yes it does!" yelled the other two parts of the Perverted Trio back.

"Ignore them," said Murayama, another member of the Kendo club. "I don't know about any other perversions you may be doing, but at least I am glad you are stopping _this_ one."

"…is NTR one of them?"

"Katase!"

"Only the Netori, where we identify with the one doing the stealing. Netorare is out of the picture for me."

"TMI! TMI!" Murayama started chanting.

"At least we know he _is_ still a pervert," whispered one girl.

"But Katase too, uh?" said another, making the mentioned girl blush.

"Ok, ok. …oh by the way, is there any way I can join the Kendo Club?"

 _Everyone_ took a step away from him.

Save for Katase. Making everyone take a step away from _both_.

"…In a _completely_ different note. I promise."

"…well, ahem, as long as you promise not to do anything perverted we could give you a week of evaluation to see if you got any potential... But be warned, if we even _suspect_ you are not taking things seriously and just there to ogle us…"

"I swear I wasn't thinking of it _until now_ ," Issei replied.

"Are you sure it is a good idea?" another member asked Murayama.

"Well, either he is being honest and we get a potential member or he isn't and we beat him up like always. And if he is being honest we will be able to keep an eye on him and away from slipping back on old habits. We got nothing really to lose."

That was answered with grumbling agreement from the other girls.

IIIII

Issei removed the gauntled on his left hand so he could wear the lent Bogu properly.

"Hey, what is this?" asked Katase, chosen as spokesperson of the Kendo team since Murayama was wearing her own armor set. "…hey, don't tell me your changes are because you got chunibyo or something like that…"

"It would explain a lot… but no, this Gauntlet is something I got from helping a friend. The screen works like a phone's, but it is much more powerful than any phone I ever got. It has some apps Stephen developed, even something like an AI that wouldn't work in anything else."

"An AI?" she asked, disbelieving a little.

Issei grinned, and turned to the gauntlet. "Burroughs," he called.

"Yes, Master?" the gauntlet answered in a feminine voice, drawing the attention of everyone there.

"Please send a text message to my parents telling them I'm gonna be late because I'm trying to join the kendo club."

"At once, Master."

"Cool, any idea when they will go on sale?"

"Last I heard they are not going to be available to public too soon."

"Then how did you get one?" Murayama asked, ready to begin.

"I already said, I helped someone that was able to get them. She gave me this one as thanks."

The kendoist huffed, but decided it was better to get to action than waste time. She got into position.

Issei soon copied hers, and they began the lessons.

It was soon clear, as much as they disliked thinking so, that Issei had a lot of potential, even if he held no formal knowledge.

And so Issei became one of the few male kendoists of the school.

IIIII

A couple months had passed since Issei's meeting with Louisa Ferre and what felt like years sharing his soul with Flynn but that for the world were mere seconds. He was not at the same level as he was with Flynn, far from it, but he spent some time exercising and training kendo. And watching the girls while they did so with him, but since he wasn't peeping, just admiring them, they felt it was progress enough they couldn't complain much.

He also stopped buying so much porn, buying books about occultism instead. His parents didn't really know if it was better or worse.

Unfortunately his friendship with his older male friends suffered a bit. If not ogling girls or talking about porn, he did not have much to talk about with them… but again, the other two were clearly jealous of him spending time with willing females so even when they did those things they were not very good company anyways.

He still treasured their friendship though. As much as they were annoying, they were his friends when he had no other ones after all.

His popularity rose. Not to the point of getting a girlfriend, but to the point the girls in the school stopped acting disgusted by his mere presence. So really, it just became neutral…

Which was why it was so surprising that, as he was leaving school after kendo practice, his path was blocked by a cute girl in the uniform of a different school.

"You are Hyoudou Issei-kun from Kuou Academy, aren't you?" the girl asked nervously.

She had a pretty cute body, with well-sized breasts. Also long, raven black hair and ametist-colored eyes.

"Yeah, that's my name miss. Do you need my help with something?"

She took a deep breath, as if gathering her courage.

"Hyoudou-kun, are you going out with someone?"

"No… wait," Issei answered, his eyes widening.

"That's great!" the girl said. "Then… would you go out with me?"

The girl explained to the surprised Issei how she started liking him as she saw him walking on his way to school.

Then she stood there, looking at him nervously as he just looked at her.

"Oh," Issei said suddenly, noticing nervous tears starting to appear in her eyes. "S-sorry, you're just so cute I kind of zoned out."

"W-what? Uhm…" The girl just blushed, avoiding his eyes.

"I'd love to, miss…?"

"Amano Yuuna, Hyoudou-kun."

He nodded, and they talked about the time of their date.

IIIII

"Help! I got a date and I have no idea what to do!"

The whole Kendo team blinked at that.

"Why don't you ask a male friend?"

"I only got two male friends for years. And I doubt they would give me any _good_ advice."

All the girls nodded. Asking for _them_ for dating tips would probably be relationship suicide instead of building.

"Ok, first things first, you've got to _not_ ogle her breasts!" said Murayama, seriously.

She then noticed the face of horror on his… male friend's? face.

"Or at least you can't let her see you doing so. Pay more attention to her face!"

"No, wait!" interrupted Katase, "She'd think she is undesirable, especially if she ever heard of how he used to be."

"Oh, right. Well, try to _avoid_ ogling her breasts, but do so from time to time… _but_ make it seem so you are trying and failing to stop yourself and to hide it."

"I see! Like this?" Issei then promptly started staring at Murayama's breasts.

"You are pretending to neither!"

"It was a critical failure both times. I'll hopefully do better next time."

"Well, stop ogling me now then!"

"I'm sticking with the consequences of my failures."

 **TWACK!**

"How is _this_ for sticking with the consequences of your failures, you pervert?" she asked angrily.

"…nostalgic, actually."

" _And?_ "

"…your oppai are still dreamy."

Murayama was going for a second attack, blushing fiercely, when Katase interrupted her.

"Let's just go for the next step."

"Right," Murayama said, taking deep breaths to calm down. "Compliments are good, but _avoid_ mentioning her… assets until you are going steady and she is comfortable with it, and specially avoid doing it in public.  
In fact, make it so for every woman you ever meet."

"But how would you girls know how awesome your breasts are without being told?"

Her eye twitched. "While we do like knowing we look good, we'd like more if you knew us enough to like us for _more_ than just that."

"So, if I was talking about you and Katase, I'd focus also on your sword skills and dedication, and in Katase's case our similar but in her case hidden perversions?"

"Eep!"

"N-no! The rest is fine, but you don't talk about personal things like their breasts and sexual preferences before you are intimate enough!"

"Hmm… I don't know her enough yet to do anything like that though… Would you mind giving an example?"

"Uh? Well, no I don't mind, but…"

"Ok. My date is this Sunday, so what about you on next Saturday? And Katase next Sunday?"

"W-what?"

Both girls' eyes widened at that.

Everyone else in the club was whispering. "Did he just…"

"Well, since it would be my first date with each of you, we could do it all three together if you'd like. I'd certainly not complain going out with two beautiful girls at once, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to pay you both the deserved attention if we did so."

"But… but… but…"

"Didn't you just say we shouldn't talk about these things until we were closer?"

The two girls mouths opened like gaping fish.

"Well, if you don't mind, could we go on? I mean, it _is_ in your best interests now that I know how to give my dates a good time."

Two other club members started dragging the confused girls away. "I think it is best if you let them rest for a bit.

Issei shrugged. "We have the whole next week to schedule the dates, no worries."

The two girls' eyes twitched.

"Er… I'll try to take over from here," said a fifth club member. "Try to plan for something you can do together, either together or against each other. Have somewhere to eat planned too, nothing fancy yet but good enough you can have a comfortable talk while eating."

Issei nodded. Those were all things he was already planning to do, but it was good to have confirmation he was on the right track.

"And finally, don't try to rush things. This is for you two to talk and know each other better, don't touch her inappropriately and don't think you are entitled to even a kiss either. Feel lucky if _she_ kisses you, many wouldn't do it in the first date no matter how good it was."

"And what if _she_ tries to rush things?"

"Then I'd wonder about her real feelings. Either it is doubtful she is emotionally invested, or she is _too_ invested.  
Anyways, I think we covered the most important things."

"Thank you," Issei said, bowing to the helping girls.

He then left the club relieved, ignoring the twitching and still stunned top kendoists.

He wasn't really planning to ask them out, but he couldn't pass the chance. And he _definitely_ was not complaining.

So distracted with his plans and happy thoughts, he did not notice a younger, white-haired student watching him.

IIIII

"I guess I was kind of stupid coming so early…" Issei said to himself.

"Don't worry about it Master, it is just polite," answered Burroughs.

"I guess… I'm still nervous though…"

"Understandable. Even if you did not seem very nervous when you asked those two out."

"Well, I didn't really thing they would _agree_ , you know… I mean, they hated me not too long ago."

"Yes, but you matured a lot for them in this time."

"I guess."

"Please help us!" a smiling girl in a cosplay-like dress said, giving him a leaflet.

"I will grant your wish… and a magic circle… She said they were different here, so is magic different too? Burroughs, could you please analyze for me and compare?"

"At once Master. I cannot guarantee due to lack of data, but it seems to me it summons a being of a specified group depending on your need. It seems to be benign to you, being activated by will or just necessity, but if so it makes me wonder why they would feel the need to give you this without your knowledge or any explanation."

"I see. Can you identify them if we ever meet?"

"I'm sorry Master, but not with my currently knowledge."

"That's ok. If they really are on my side they'll probably say so sooner or later."

Howeer, their talk was interrupted by a happy voice.

"Issei-kun!" Amano Yuuma said, "I'm sorry, did you wait long?"

"Don't worry, I was the one early. You are right on time.

wait…"

Issei visibly deflated.

"What's wrong?" Yuuma asked, a bit worried.

"Oh. It's just that I always wanted to say that I had just arrived when that happened, but your cute face when worried distracted me."

"Hehe, thank you… I must say, you are not what I expected, Issei-kun. Not that it is a bad thing, just… different."

"Yeah, something happened a couple months ago. Put my life in perspective for me."

"Oh?"

Issei scratched the back of his head nervously. "I helped someone in trouble... A friend that lives in Tokyo. Well, _now_ she is a friend, at the time we had never met."

"Ooh, _she_? Should I be worried about some competition?"

"Nah. I think we went through too much together, I doubt she'd ever look at me like anything but a brother."

Yuuma shook her head. "I wouldn't count on it for just that reason. But since I'm the one getting you instead of her, I won't complain."

She promptly grabbed his arm, pulling it to her bosom.

Issei's eyes widened and went right to said bosom. A small tightening of the hold made him look up a bit to her face, and seeing she was smiling a bit smugly he resisted the urge to go back and looked forward like he had been advised to. 'Pretend you are pretending not to have ogled. Pretend you are pretending not to have ogle.'

"S-so… This is kinda my first date, so sorry if I do anything wrong… I was thinking about starting going to an arcade nearby, what do you think?"

"Sounds good for me. I don't remember the last time I went to one."

"Oh, cool. I was afraid I may have seemed a bit childish, but I don't know you enough yet to make any plans… I mean, I know you're beautiful, and really cute when nervous, but that's it for now."

"It is a bit," she agreed. "But I guess acting a bit childish now and then must be fun."

They started walking.

"So, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"

"Uhm, why don't you start, Issei-kun? You seem so different from what I thought…"

Issei shrugged… which made his arm move up and down a bit against the soft surfaces they were being held to. His eyes were quickly drawn to them.

Yuuma giggled, making Issei quickly look at her face and then forwards again.

"Comfortable?" she asked, before resting her head against his shoulder as they walked.

"You won't ever hear me complain in this position," he smirked. "But that said, before meeting my friend in Tokyo I was a bit… _obsessed_ with…"

"That fits with what I heard, actually," Yuuma said. "I even wore a blouse supposed to draw attention to mine, but you didn't even seem to care," she pouted.

"Oh I care, trust me. Let's just say that I just got a _lot_ of willpower in constant use right now. …of course, the fact your beautiful face is on the way helps resist the temptation."

She giggled. "And what if I _want_ to tempt you? Not even going to _try_ to figure out how far I'm going to let you go?"

"Nope. The more you try to tempt me the more reason to resist, so I can enjoy both your body and your company even more as you try to break me down. Sacrifices must be made for the long game, I guess."

"So your plan is to tempt me back by making me try to tempt you more and more, all the while enjoying my temptations but trying your best to hide how much you are enjoying so I keep trying to tempt you more and more?"

"Yup!"

"Devious!" Yuuma says in an amazed voice. "And it might just work too!"

Issei laughed, which made Yuuma laugh back.

IIIII

There were two words to describe Yuuma's personality when her blood got boiling in the arcade: competitive and prideful.

…which, thinking back on their conversation on the way there, meant that it _did_ might work.

He couldn't resist a chuckle.

Which, considering Yuuma just lost a challenge of a fighting game, got him a glare.

"Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking that this competitive side of yours is cute too."

"O-oh, sorry. I'm… not really good at many things, so when I find something I _am_ good at I kinda go too far sometimes. And I kinda don't like losing."

"Thus you trying to tempt me to focus on your beautiful… arm-huggers."

She giggled.

…screw the advice to avoid mentioning them, sometimes it was time to improvise.

"I must say, they _are_ beautiful, and you do well to be proud of them… but so is the rest of you, both your body, specially them and your beautiful cute face, and the small I was able to see of your beautiful personality when not trying to just impress me.  
So, why don't you show me more of the _real_ Yuuma and let me know more of this prideful woman I know you are but not enough yet for my tastes? Through a snack, maybe?"

Yuuma blushed, but a much more confident smile appeared on her face. "Sure, let's go."

IIIII

"I kinda have a crush on my boss, well, my top boss, I'm kinda too low-rank for him to be my direct boss," Yuuma confessed, as she took a bite of her ice cream. "I mean, he is a scientist, one of the top ones, which shows his smarts, and… a bit of a man-whore, which shows his good looks since he usually hides who he is when picking up women. Yet whenever I meet him, someone that is basically the same in our workplace's chain of command as a fast-food worker, he treats me as if I was as important and beautiful as the high-ranked girls…"

"Sounds like someone great to work under," Issei admitted. "I see no fault in you for having a crush on him, even if I'm a little jealous.  
But… I'm having a _hard_ time thinking of better-looking girls than you."

"Rias Gremory from your school, for one?" she grumbled.

"Pretty close, actually, at least to me. I mean sure, her breasts are a bit bigger, and her hair and eye color are exotic, but your breasts are not _that_ smaller than hers, and your eye color is just as exotic. Her red hair and European appearance got a good competition in your long, lustrous black hair that makes you look like a classical beauty though.

"Himejima Akemi," she shot back.

"Her breasts are _even better_ ," he admitted. "But the appeal it is more of her Yamato Nadesiko appearance and _public_ personality… which, I don't know, ever since meeting my friend in Tokyo it seems a bit fake. As if she is just trying to fit a role…"

She rolled her eyes. "You're just saying those things to make me feel better."

"Doesn't mean they are not true, though," he countered. "If it wasn't cliché'd I'd swear you were an angel of temptation or something."

Yuuma choked on her ice cream.

"Are you alright?"

The girl just looked at him with a weird face. "Evil angel of temptation? Where did you get that idea from?"

He shrugged. "Well, the temptation part is because… face it, you _like_ showing off your body. Not that I'm not enjoying what you've shown me. And angels are commonly known as symbols of beauty… even if that's not really accurate with the religious texts."

"But still, 'angel of temptation'?"

"Well, don't quote on me if you ever meet one, but according to most sources demons are actually either angels that fell with Helel, or Lucifer, when he rebelled, or descendants of them. _Not_ among them is Samael, that some claim is Satan – not to be confused with Lucifer that is a different angel that many for some reason think is the same – that supposedly seduced Eve and actually impregnated her with Cain… although others say it was Azazel, who _did_ fall.  
Anyway, when you have the _not_ fallen Mastema, an angel of prosecution and hostility, the lines between fallen angels and not fallen seem a little blurry on this side of the knowledge."

Yuuma was looking at him for a bit, eyes wide. "You seem to know a lot about these things…"

"An old friend of mine is of a Christian family. Haven't seem him in a while though. And to be honest the occult _is_ fascinating, all those gods and demons of different cultures representing what they believed and their way of life…  
I've been thinking of joining my school's Occult Research Club, but it seems to be invitations-only…"

Yuuma blinked. "Is that… normal?"

"Not sure, but they are approved by the school's faculty, so… Well, at least they don't seem to get a school budget, but that still makes it their own exclusive club in school grounds.  
But… I kinda understand them. All four current members are considered the most popular in the school save for the Student Council. Many would want to join just to hang out with them."

IIIII

"I… had fun today…" said Yuuma, saddened, as they approached a fountain in the park.

"You don't _sound_ like you had fun," pointed Issei, worried. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you didn't. Actually, you did better than I'd expect from _anyone_. And _that_ is the problem."

"I… I hope I'm not making you feel forced to do anything. If you want we can end the date right no—"

His words were interrupted by Yuuma giving him a kiss on the lips.

"I'm sorry, but this is not something you can help me with…" she sighed. "I had plans, you know. I would have a date with you, let you have your fun and enjoy as much as you wanted, and then ask for it… but you had to be actually nice to me, even after I let you see my dark side and insecurities."

"Ask for it? Ask for what? If it is anything I can help you with…"

This saddened Yuuma ainda mais, but she took a deep breath and asked…

"Would you please die for me?"

Issei's eyes widened. But, instead of a statement of confusion like Yuuma expected, what he said was.

"Goddamnit, not again."

He opened the screen on his metal gauntlet, that she knew was a kind of smartphone from what she heard, and poked some things desperately.

Probably an emergency in case a girl wanted to kill him again or whatever had happened before.

She didn't need to, her original plan was to do it just to give him a good last vision, but hopefully now it would distract him too much to contact anyone.

Her clothes exploded from her body, as she was bathed in am amethyst light. Her black wings expanded from her back, and black leather strips dripped from nowhere and covered her body like a very revealing dominatrix outfit.

Issei just watched, eyes wide and a goofy grin on his face.

And then she threw a spear of amethyst light on his stomach.

Yuuma blinked in confusion.

"You were so focused on ogling my body you didn't even try to evade?"

Issei shrugged. "I made my decision."

Then the light spear disappeared and he fell on his back, a hole going right through his abdomen.

"I really am sorry, you know. You really made me feel special, despite being just a human.

You had the potential to be a danger to us, so I was tasked with ending you as soon as possible.  
If you want to blame anyone, blame the God that gave you a Sacred Gear."

She then turned around and flew away.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll treasure your memory," were her last words before she left his sight.

Issei just stood there, losing his strength as his blood escaped his body.

"…Alright, I believe she has been gone far enough. You can heal him now," said the voice of Burroughs from the gauntlet.

A little blond girl in a dark blue dress with white details approached the downed Issei. Her hand was covered with magic, and she promptly tapped his chest.

His body was soon covered with the magic energy, and healed extremely quick. In less than a second it was like he had never been hurt, and his eyes opened.

Standing up, he patted the girl's head with a smile. "Thank you."

 _Then_ she noticed the girl was frowning.

"She used my line."

"Oh," he said.

There wasn't anything better to be said, anyway.

IIIII

Rias Gremory was resisting the urge to pace, staring at the clock.

"Maybe we were wrong?" She finally said. "Maybe she really just wanted to date him?"

"Buchou, if you are so worried, let's just go check it out."

Rias nodded to Akeno's words. It would do no good to worry herself like this.

Arriving at the park, they quickly felt the traces of Light on top of a puddle of blood… but not body.

Akeno promptly put her hand on Rias' shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. The only other thing you could have done is stalk them on their date.  
Besides, it seem they took his body, so even if he activated the magic circle we would have to fight them for him."

Rias sighed.

"At least… I'm going to go tell his family. They deserve to know."

"But Buchou-sama, you have no idea what happened. Maybe he is still alive?

Rias just looks at her strangely.

"I'm not saying that it is not the most likely, but there is also the chance he was kidnapped but they are keeping him alive to use him for something."

"You are right… it is a small possibility, but it exists." At that affirmation, she makes a phone call. "Koneko, could you come to the park, please? We'd like your help with something."

IIIII

The three devils were _really_ confused when Koneko's nose guided them to where Hyoudou Issei was supposedly carried to.

Mainly, because it was the Hyoudou residence.

Regardless, Rias went in front. The others were against it, but she felt responsible for anything bad that could be happening. In her head, the whole family was being held hostage as the fallen searched for a family heirloom of great power.

The three were ready for a fallen angel to attack them as soon as the door opened.

They were _not_ ready to meet Hyoudou Issei himself opening the door with his left hand, his right holding a book with a finger marking the page.

"Hello?"

"Oh, hello Hyoudou-kun," Rias said, recovering quickly. "I am Rias Gremory, and these are Himejima Akeno and Toujou Koneko. We are members of the school's Ocult Research Club."

"Uhm, hello." Issei said lamely. "I… is this about my request to join the club?"

"Ah? I wasn't aware of any requests from you to join. How long have you been interested in researching the occult?"

"A couple of months. I had some… eye-opening experiences, and an interest in this was one of the consequences."

"I see." Rias did not see. What happened this past couple of months that would make someone like him interested in the occult, well save for today?

"But… if it is not that, why did you girls come to visit? Oh, sorry, do you want to enter?"

"No need, thank you. We were just… following a trail of a supposed supernatural event from the park, and ended up here. Did you see anything?"

"Nothing I'd feel comfortable talking about out here…" Issei whispered, only loud enough for Rias to hear. "Are you sure you girls don't want to enter?"

"No, thank you. But what about you visit us in the club tomorrow? We'll call you when we are all free so you can come. There we can talk properly about you joining us and about whatever you think you need to."

"Sounds good," Issei agreed.

IIIII

Issei watched from his window as the three girls disappeared in a magical circle as soon as they thought they were unwatched.

"I guess we figured out who our mysterious pamphlet was from," said Burroughs.

Issei nodded.

"Are you going to give them the benefit of the doubt?"

"Well, you did say the pamphlet was supposed to summon them if I was in deep enough trouble. Unlike whoever is Yuuma's boss, they were hands-off but don't seem to have anything against me.

Also… we were taken by surprise, but they probably are our best bet to find out about the _real_ sides in this world's supernatural side. We do know at least one sees me as an enemy despite us knowing nothing about them."

"I got no data about those Sacred Gears your date mentioned. Do not forget to ask them about it."

Issei nodded.

He wasn't able to reconcile the life of Hyoudou Issei, pervert student, with Flynn, samurai and demon hunter. The closer he got was… the point he was.

And he got the feeling he'd need the best of both sides soon…

…

He had no idea what Issei had Flynn lacked besides the perversion, though.

IIIII

 **If you couldn't tell, Issei went through a bastardization of the New Life Start version of New Game+. That means he kept the Demon Compendium and some of the apps but lost his stats (although he is working on building them back up) and Demon Whispers (meaning, he got no magics yet but one) and** _ **one**_ **powerful demon through the DDS card (from where he got the one magics he still got (Energy Drain), the demon had more but not that he can use much or at all with his current stats). And yes, said demon is pretty recognizeable.  
But as I said, bastardization. He actually got **_**all**_ **apps possible on one run instead of just the few of New Life, because his Burroughs was completely copied including them.**

 **I was also going to** _ **not**_ **give him his equipment, but I'm a bit in doubt. It is clearly kept on Burroughs, since you can change it anytime out of battle (and you got no backpack), and I really want Issei to sometime wear the initial Samurai outfit…**


	2. Deal with a Devil

**Response was great, even if reviews were scarce. But again, even though DxD is quite well-liked, it seems to be more popular as crossover with more known series.**

 **Unfortunately I have no way of answering guest reviews... doing so in the fic itself would make for gigantic Author's Notes, like I saw on other fics. So please, if you want a reply make a profile here. I swear it doesn't usually send e-mails but messages of fics or authors you follow.**

 **That said, one reviewer asked if 1- The Expanse will invade DxD, 2- if people from DxD will get demon summoning apps, and 3- if SMT Lucifer will make an appearance.  
1- Eventually, 2- not right now, but soon, and 3- already did (Louisa Ferre is the form Lucifer used in SMT Strange Journey. You can see that, unlike the one in IV that as mentioned last chapter was not the same Lucifer as in previous games, she follows the same appearance pattern of the other games but for the gender). But if you mean an actual worthwhile appearance instead of just plot facilitator, it will be after the Expanse comes.**

 **Another review had a worry that I'd be one of the fics that claim things will change but still make Issei follow the same story. Well, while some things that were complained about were understandable being annoyed by the sheer repetition, and I was already either not going to do or going to twist anyway, others I was not accepting to compromise on. At least in this fic. I accept suggestions, but not all of them will be used – or agreed with. And as our talk progressed it seemed to sound more like demands. I don't like to use "this is my story not yours" or "don't like don't read" cards, but I feel forced to in this case. Seriously, if you want a story that follows all your personal wishes, either write yourself or ask someone to do it for you, don try to convince someone else to twist theirs.**

 **And finally… someone suggested I get an editor… I'll be honest, I don't blame my not being an English native speaker much, but it does confuses me with some words, I sometimes forget the word I mean and need to think an equivalent. I also write on word, but I am aware that if the wrong word is too close to an existing one it won't be marked, or worse it will be "fixed" automatically… also, with so many Japanese words and names being marked it is easy to ignore a marked word by accident…  
I am aware of those problems, but I cannot look for a Beta. My writing is very sporadic really, as you can see by the fact my other stories are a bit late for months by now… I get an idea, I write it, and keep writing until I stop getting inspiration. It also ncludes not-posted stories.  
Anyways, a Beta Reader would be **_**really**_ **frustrated with my writing schedule…**

IIIII

"Any idea of when you'd be able to visit me?" she asked with the same mischievous smile Issei always saw, even when not meeting her in his dreams.

"Not really. I mean, I need to not only be on a school break, but also be able to convince my parents to let me visit."

The woman sighed. "Pity, I was hoping to meet you for real soon. Burroughs shared her memories with me, but it's not the same thing…"

"Yeah… I would like to meet this you too…" Issei sighed. "And speaking of this you—"

"Nothing new has shown up… and to tell the truth I doubt it will so soon."

He froned. "Do you think that her warning—"

"No, I just think it won't begin here," the woman stopped him. "While the history of Tokyo would make it a powerful place for a gate opening, I doubt it will have as much relevance in this world."

Issei took a sip of his tea, looking at her, showing he was paying attention.

"This world, as Lucifer told you, has an internal supernatural side… which is focused in two places. One of them is Kyoto, but the other one is the one I believe it will happen."

"Let me guess, and it somehow is the reason I am here and was attacked by the black-winged girl?"

The woman only laughed. "You think _the Fifth Son_ was the one attracted to the future focus of world-changing events?"

"I wasn't the Fifth Son until a couple months ago when Lucifer sent me to help Flynn," Issei pointed out.

The woman only smiled mysteriously. "Maybe. Or maybe Lucifer sent you there _because_ you were the Fifth Son. Or don't you remember the claim that you were sent because you were Flynn's incarnation here?"

The woman said nothing, only smiling mysteriously humming a song.

Hearing his alarm clock, Issei prepared himself to go back to his own room, only for being confused by the lyrics of the song she was humming.

"In the edge of a certain town, the Oppai Dragon was laughing…"

IIIII

"You think this is enough questions for now?" Issei asked his gauntlet.

"It should be enough for now. We will probably get more questions when we get some answers."

"Good," Issei said, preparing himself to finally go to class.

"But, the last question, the one you added this morning…"

"It is a life or death case, Burroughs."

"But master, 'what is an oppai dragon and where are they located'?"

"They are either protectors or predators of oppais. So they are either going to become my best friends or my worst enemies. Either way, this informatios is _vital_!"

"What about being dragons with big breasts?"

"…"

"…you are going to put it on the top of the list now, aren't you?"

"Nah," Issei denied. "If I put it on top they'd deny knowing about them. No, I'll put it in the middle, where they'll disarmed by my other questions they won't even notice I asked it but hopefully not annoyed enough to just ignore it."

"Why are you only this smart when it is about big breasts and battle?"

"I have no shame to hold me down," he shrugged.

Issei wasn't sure if sighing was instinctual or had to be done consciously by Burroughs. On one hand she wasn't _exactly_ an AI (or maybe she was but his belief she was more turned her into more, because no one in Mikado even knew what an AI was and called them sprites and the non-human being were shaped and empowered by belief so…), on the other, she was _still_ an AI, kinda.

In other words, was her sighing in annoyance right now a real reflex or a teasing?

Asking would break the magic… and actually, he doubted she would be honest anyway.

… _could_ she not be honest? After—

"Master, why are you hitting your head on the wall?"

IIIII

Issei left the house, feeling… pretty defenseless. And paranoid.

Sure, the Sol Blade was the best dagger available with current technology, Peacemaker was the stronger gun of the same kind, and the Peacemaker was loaded with Shinno rounds… but if anyone found either of them he would be in trouble for being armed anyway. Japan was far from the same society as the other Tokyo.

And, as much as Burroughs could keep his uniform and let him change in a couple commands – as long as he wasn't in battle, the best he could do was wear the pads. Which, sure, were great lowering physical damage of any kind, but not only was it just lowering, which in his current state wasn't that much even if hopefully enough to save him from otherwise-fatal hits, but it also in exchange made him weak to _two_ other kinds of magical damage. And worse, since the attack he had hit was a mix of Gun and Light, he could _not_ sacrifice his human immunity to the damage… meaning the relatively better looking cream-colored ones were out, so the choices were either the tri-colored ones or the magenta.  
Well, there were the special armors he got in Ginza… but as hard as it was to believe the colored shoulder pads were the less attention-grabbing ones. The others were either medieval, samurai or "not supposed to exist yet" armors. Shame, the demonica would be so perfect…

He _really_ hoped the whole shades and walking with his phone playing BeeGees' Staying Alive would at least let him pretend it was a bit less humiliating.

But at least he would soon be in school, where he would be forced to wear the uniform which gave him no protection whatsoever… but also no weakness. It was weirdly neutral.

IIIII

"Hey Issei," approached the two best trained members of the Kendo Club, "how was your date yesterday? Did… did the tips work?"

"Kinda," Issei replied, looking at them a bit weird. "She told me she liked most of what I did, but she heard I was a pervert and complained I wasn't perving on her as much as she expected. Too bad about how it ended."

"How it ended?" Murayama asked, "what do you mean?"

"Know about those pranks in anime and mangas where people are told to go out with someone, giving them false hope? It was kinda like that." …well, she was told to go out with him, giving him false hope he has a chance. She just tried to kill him instead of just dumping him cruelly.

"That's evil,"Katase said.

"Well, she did say she was sorry about that. But from her sad face I don't think I'll have much chance of a second date with her even so." Especially since she thinks I died there.

The two kendokas nodded… then got a bit silent.

"Uhm, are your dates with us still good?" Katase asked.

Issei quickly looked at them, eyes wide in surprise. The two were blushing, and he didn't think it was all because of the attention the rest of the class was giving the three.

He shrugged. "No problem here. I was kinda thinking you girls wouldn't want to though."

"Well, you thought wrong," Murayama replied, acting a bit insulted but blush still on her face.

Issei just smiled. "It is a bit early in the week, how about we talk about them on Thursday?"

"Alright then," Murayama accepted. Katase nodded at her side, and the two went back to their desks, still blushing.

Everyone started whispering about it, but no one seemed to think anything is wrong with it, just surprising. What a difference two months of not being as openly a pervert can mak—

Issei quickly blocked the punch and threw the person into the other attacker, making them roll on the ground.

When he looked, he was disappointed by not being surprised it was the other two members of the Pervert Trio.

"What was that for?" he asked, already aware.

"You… you traitor!"

"You are betraying the order of the single guys!"

Issei only looked at the angry faces of his old friends.

"So you don't think I should go on a date with them?"

"NO!"

"Wait, so you _do_ think I should go on a date with them?"

"NO! THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT WE MEANT!"

"I see. So if you guys were the ones with dates, you would refuse them not to betray this order?"

"OF COURSE NOT!"

"But I should?"

"YES!"

"…well fuck you two, this order and the horses you are riding on. If you are so jealous then go find a date for yourselves."

"HOW?" they asked… where did those notepads come from?

"Look, it was simple to me: you find a girl you'd like to go out with, look at her in the eyes and ask her out."

"YEAH RIGHT!" they yelled again, angrily.

"Every girl in the school would reject us!"

"The only consolation we had is that we had more chance than you!"

"Look, I have no idea _how_ it worked for me, but it did. That is _all_ that I did—wait, what do you mean you had more chance than me? I'm not a bishounen, but I was always better looking than you guys!"

The two others started laughing.

But before anyone could say anything, all the girls started doing a sound the males could only describe as "squeeing".

"Kiba-kun is here!" they heard one of them say.

Kiba Yuuto was, in a few words, an undisputable bishounen. His face was so that if you didn't know it would be good looking yet genderless. His body was not muscled, but was still fit, or so could be thought from his clothes. His blond hair seemed to not even need to be combed, and his blue eyes looked like an anime protagonist's. And he was always polite and well-humored, in a way that Issei always considered too constant to be real. In the same way he could say the same about Himejima Akeno now that he wasn't as blinded by her… other assets ( _as_ blinded, they were still great).

Issei always hated the guy people called "the Prince of Kuoh" before his time as Flynn, and actually had no chance or reason to even think about him after.

"Ah right, he is a member of the Occult Research Club too," Issei told himself.

He was seriously in doubt if he should still hate him. On one hand, he was a bishie, the nightmare of all single males. On the other… now that he thought about it, so was Flynn in a way. Should… should he hate himself?

"Issei-san?"

"Yes?" In his confusion, Issei went with what was familiar. Be polite. Analyze the personality. Recruit or destroy the demon.

…wait, what?

"I am here in the name of Rias Gremory," said the smiling blond. In the past Issei would consider it a hidden smugness and need to resist trying to punch his face. But now… now that he met Jonathan, now that he knew it was _possible_ to really have a personality like that as long as the wrong buttons were not pushed, he _really_ wanted to avoid finding those…

"Eh? Kiba-kun and Issei-kun?" asked Murayama, clear disappointment in her voice.

"Well, that would explain why he got so much better…" replied Katase.

"That's hot!" said a third voice, a classmate that was weirdly focused on their crotches. …well, at least her pleased face told Issei we would not disappoint, considering Kiryuu Aika's fame of being able to tell "equipment" sizes with a look.

"Don't worry ladies, I assure you that as hard as it may be I will _not_ fall into Kiba's charms," Issei "reassured" them as he stood up to follow the blond.

He quietly ignored a girl asking Kiba to promise the same.

IIIII

The Occult Research Club was… opulent.

Seriously, either this was someone's mansion or something before being added to the school, or the club members were putting their own money there, because there was no way it would be _like this_ just on school budget.

Seriously, he could have sworn this was a piece of Lucifer's Palace, with how opulent it was.

In a long sofa in the middle of the room was the white-haired younger girl that visited him the night before, Toujou Koneko, eating some sweets.

"This is Toujou Koneko, first year student," Kiba confirmed for him.

"We met before," Issei said, bowing to the younger girl. "Hyoudou Issei. It is a pleasure to meet you again."

Toujou was considered one of the cutest things in Kuoh Academy by… almost everyone in there. Regardless of gender. She was the unofficial school mascot.

Issei got the weird impulse to throw her a yarn ball. He had no idea why.

The girl in question just looked at him, blinking.

"You smell like death," the girl said with an emotionless face.

"After yesterday, I _feel_ like death, honestly," Issei joked. Well kinda, Samarecarm healed but you still felt sore like death.

He hoped this "smell" had a "feel" meaning, though. He would be really worried if he confirmed two dates while smelling like crap.

Well, she didn't seem like she wanted to say more, so he looked around… was that _a shower stall in the middle of the room_?

Because seriously, with the sound of running water hitting a flesh body and the silhouette of a very well-shaped female body on the curtains, that was what it looked like.

But he was not sure, so he kept watching until either he was or whoever it was finished her bath. For science.

"Pervert," Toujou said.

"Cutie," Issei shot back.

"You're not good at this insults thing, are you Issei-san?" Kiba asked from the sidelines.

"Insults? I thought we were just saying the obvious?"

"…I don't know how to respond to this…" admitted the girl.

But while one part of his mind was in the banter, and a much bigger one was on memor— _analyzing_ the shower shadow, a third part of it was making connections: Rias Gremory called him there, but was not present. Instead, _someone_ that was supposed to already be warned, and from the silhouette he was pretty sure it was Gremory herself, was taking a shower in the middle of the room. While he was still an admitted pervert, even if he toned down.

Geez, he was probably being paranoid. It was not like it was easy to believe he would be swayed to do whatever she needed through blatant seduction.

Ha! No, until two months ago this would clearly be overkill.

The big question was: what would they want with him? It would clearly need some convincing, so it would not be something he would usually do…

"Ara ara," said Himejima Akeno from the side of the shower stall. He waved to her politely. Her _long_ black hair in a ponytail, calm eyes, sensual body and demure yet sensual movements… she was considered the perfect definition of a Yamato Nadesiko to all students in class but, recently, Issei. The only rival in popularity was Rias Gremory, who was also known as her best friend.

"Are you enjoying the show, Issei-kun?" Himejima asked politely as if they were watching the theater.

"Very much, Himejima-senpai. Please thank Gremory-senpai for me if you meet her before my meeting with her begins."

"Ara ara," she replied, hiding her mouth behind her hand as if trying to hide holding back her laughter but just being polite.

At that point the shower was turned off, and the person inside started drying and then dressing herself.

"Thank you for waiting," came the voice of Rias Gremory as she opened the curtains, her long, still a bit wet blood-red hair contrasting with her blue-green eyes (he wasn't really sure how to call that color). Her body was already dressed, but the uniform didn't really hide her figure.

"I am sorry, something happened yesterday that I wasn't expecting, so I had to deal with things. I ended up waking up too late to take a bath, so I had to take it now."

"Was it me surviving without your help?" Issei asked nonchalantly.

Everyone but him froze, tense.

"I got a paper with a summoning circle that, from what a friend with some knowledge told me, would call _someone_ if I thought myself in need, and you girls left my home in one after your visit… I'm pretty sure you have magical powers and were expecting me to need your help."

"I won't deny it," Rias agreed, resuming drying her hair as she went to sit behind her desk. The whole club was still tense, but she was trying to pretend she wasn't. "We were expecting your… companion to attack you, and that was to summon us in case you needed our help. When it got late and no summon was made, we went to the park and found a puddle of blood, so we thought you had been captured."

"Nope, just took a fatal meeting with a spear of light. She thought I had no hope of getting better and live so she left me there alone to die."

"I see," Rias frowned. "So, how are you alive?" She really hoped another devil did not convert him…

"As I said, she thought I had no hope of getting better and live so she left me there alone to die. She was wrong in all accounts."

Rias nodded. "Excuse me for a second?" she asked him. "Koneko…"

"He is human still, Buchou."

Rias blinked. Issei blinked. His smartphone-glove's screen blinked.

This confused the others, but Issei ignored it to be more focused in her words. So apparently they thought he had a chance he had stopped being human. …Was he at risk of becoming a zombie? Or a ghoul?

"I see…" Rias said, clearly trying to think of what to say. "Hyoudou-san… can I call you Issei-kun?"

"Sure," he said. "You can even call me Ise if you want."

"Ise-kun, you said you had some interest in the occult… and now talk about magic circles and being hit with spears of light… how much exactly do you know of the supernatural?"

"Hmm… assume I know it exists but all my knowledge comes from anime and manga."

Rias' eyes started shining for some weird reason…

"Ok. What could you tell me of the term 'devil'?"

"A title that is usually used for Lucifer. Lucifer, Morning Star, or Helel, Shining One, was considered the highest ranked angel before his fall through rebelling against God."

There he paused, because _everyone_ in the club seemed to wince.

"Lucifer is in some places believed to also be Satan, but in others Satan is one who tempts mankind to prove that it is easily led astray. I personally believe this second interpretation because else they would be unable to represent the sins of Pride and Wrath respectively."

"Oookayy…" Gremory answered slowly.

"The Devil is also a shapeshifter, but most human forms, no matter the age or gender follow a pattern. Male or female, it will be unnaturally beautiful, with one eye silvery blue and one very light red you'd barely notice, wearing very classy clothes… and _dat ass_. …well, a female form will have _dat ass_ , no idea about a male."

Rias only looked at him strangely, but after a while chose to just go back to talking.

"Well, it _is_ a decent knowledge, but it seems to be mostly book learning… And from the end of it some of it I'm not sure if they are appropriate to be mentioned here… But what if I told you devils exist and are completely different than what you believe?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," shrugged Issei. "I never been to DevilLand."

Akeno chuckled a bit behind her hand. Issei really doubted this was that funny…

"Well… you aren't much wrong… about the original devil," Rias said. "The original Lucifer, or rather the original Devil, _was_ a fallen angel that rebelled, but him and his forces were punished by being… turned into a new kind. This kind is known as the Devils."

Issei nodded.

"There are non-devils Fallen Angels, though. Fallen were just abandoned by their leader as punishment for their actions and lost some of their power, though, while Devils were actively opposed by him, being hurt extremely by holy items or light weapons. They are hurt even by people saying his name nearby, much less reading holy books aloud."

"Thus Yuuma using a light spear, she can make weapons out of light and while it is a spear to the stomach to me, to a devil it would be even more dangerous."

"Exactly," Rias said.

"So… was she a normal angel or a fallen? She said that having to kill me was God's fault—"

Another flinch from everyone else.

Right as he said the word God. Right after hearing that devils feel pain by hearing the name of the "leader of the angels".

Thankful that he was not sitting, Issei slowly started inching towards the door.

"…for giving me something called Sacred Gear… That I have no idea what it is."

"If that is the reason for her killing you, she was a Fallen. Well, I already knew she was, but a normal angel got no reason to kill you only for having a Sacred Gear, since they would instead try to recruit you. They are called that because they are given by their leader, after all."

"I see. Angels and their boss give Sacred Gears, Fallen are against them so they try to kill those that got them?"

"Not really. They are said to try to recruit and sometimes experiment in Sacred Gear owners if they can. I'm actually surprised she tried to kill you instead of recruit.

While the power and abilities of sacred gears range from extreme to very situational, every one of them is a great tool in the right hands and with the right use."

"I see… do you have any idea why she tried to kill me then?"

Rias frowned, as if deep in thought. "I… I don't know. To tell the truth it makes no sense."

Issei nodded. He could think of no reason either if they could try recruiting him.

"And please stop trying to sneak out while asking for information, it is quite rude."

He froze… then sighed. "How did you figure out?"

Everyone just _looked_ at him?

"You took a small step at a time without really hiding it," Gremory said.

"While humming the Mission Impossible theme," continued Himejima.

"While we were looking at you," added Kiba.

"You are an idiot," finished Toujou.

Issei sighed. "I was pretty sure that song was just in my head…"

"Yes, well, as I am sure you figured out we are devils. I am Rias Gremory, pureblooded devil of the Gremory clan, descendants of the Gremory from the Ars Goetia."

Issei blinked. "The seer with the camel?"

"Don't forget the ability to find hidden treasures," helped Himejima.

Issei nodded. "A seer camel-riding Indiana Jones."

"And it is a he that likes to have relationship with women, old or young."

"Ah yes, the big question, is it gay if it looks like a girl? I personally believe—"

"Excuse me!" Rias interrupted, a bit insulted.

"Ah yes, good point. It doesn't matter because she will be going for girls too. So, _is it Yuri_ if one of them—"

" _Moving on!_ " Rias interrupted again, "We high-ranked devils have what is called a Peerage. We form them through which is called _Evil Pieces_ , which increase a peerage member's power. Each King, the peerage leader, has a limited number of pieces based on chess, and the members too powerful may take more than one piece of the same type."

"And let me guess, you are telling me this because this club is actually a front to hide your Peerage in plain sight."

"Yes, that is what it was created for. Honestly, we did not expect so many people to become interested in the occult, there was no mention of it among the other students until we made it…"

Issei rolled his eyes.

"And by telling me all this, I guess you want me to join your peerage. I guess these Evil Pieces can turn humans into devils?"

"Not just humans," Rias replied confidently. "Supernatural beings too. And even the dead, if the death was recent enough."

Issei narrowed his eyes slightly, but quickly relaxed them. Thankfully this clear sales pitch made it seem this was thinking about hat she was offering than about the implications of giving him a paper that would summon him when he was near death instead of, for example, follow him from a distance to protect him.

He was hoping to believe in the best of people, so he did not mind hoping she just didn't think things through… but he would take her words with a grain of salt from now on.

"Despite our weakness to holy energy, items and names, the benefits more than make up for it," Rias continued. "Becoming a demon makes you stronger, faster, more durable, and even actually immortal. And if you train yourself enough you may even become a High-Class devil and be able to make a peerage of your own..."

Issei nodded. "That is very tempting. Power, immortality, throw in money on the mix it it will become almost irresistible."

Rias' eyes widened to his words... and did they hold a hint of disappointment? "I guess. I was born in a wealthy family and all these things are already mine, and I have nothing holding back from sharing with them until they acquire them on their own."

Issei nodded, a smile in his face.

Rias was a bit disappointed. She needed the power he held, but she wanted people she could trust into. A pervert honest in more than just his perversion? She could more than work with it. But she could not trust in someone who literally asked for money when offered everything devilhood offered already. Someone like that would probably be easily bribable.

Which was she was more relieved than disappointed when Hyoudou Issei slapped her desk with his face full of offended fury.

"Who the hell do you think I am? Do you think I can be bribed so easily? What next, will you offer to make an harem for me?"

"Well—"

"No, madam! I am Hyoudou Issei! I am a weakling, an idiot and a pervert, and I admit it without shame. But what I am _not_ is someone who can be coerced to abandon what I believe in just for small things. I would fight to the death for what I believe in, and proudly, but my beliefs are not for sale. I will get power by myself. I will get my harem by conquering her hearts myself. And I may die cold and hungry but I will not sell my morals for the highest bidder."

He took a deep breath before sitting down.

"Your attempts to convince me to join your cause was amusing even if obvious, but the only reason I am not leaving right now after trying to bribe me is because you clearly were against it.  
But that leaves the question, even if you disliked the idea you _still_ wanted to do it. So, why? Why is recruiting me so important?"

Rias should be feeling insulted, but she was just glad Hyoudou was still an honest person and had just been testing her.

"Discounting the fact Sacred Gears are a powerful tool that I'd rather having on our side than on our enemies'?"

"We don't know what my supposed Sacred Gear does," Issei pointed out. "And since my money comment clearly made you think I would not be worthy much as your servant since my loyalty could be bought, why not just get rid of me?"

Rias sighed. "Despite common belief, we devils are not all evil beings. In fact, even discounting previously human ones we are mostly trying to be pacific ever since the last was around five centuries ago. Sure, there are exceptions, but they are considered criminals on our side too. So no, we do not kill humans, and don't take lives or souls as payment for our services anymore… unless the request is too expensive. A healthy person can save a handful of terminal disease people, for example, but would certainly die in their place. On the other hand, mere money would take something of personal value."

"That's… interesting?" Issei said, carefully. "But not what I asked…"

"That means I have at least some morals," replied the redhead. "Since I'd feel bad about it, instead of killing you to keep my secrets I'd hypnotize you to forget or, if it failed, bribe you and only execute you if you betrayed me."

"Good point, good point," Issei said, agreeing. "Well, that's it then, this is a devils-only club and all that, so I'll be going."

He made up to stand up, but two mounds on top of his head and to hands on his shoulders help him in place.

Now he was in doubt if he _wanted_ to resist and be going…

"Just so you know, all the information you gave me is already recorded and into the Cloud," he pointed out. "So erasing my memory would do you no good."

"But Ise-kun," sound Himejima's voice above his head, "didn't you hear Buchou-sama? There would be no problem for you to _join us_ …"

Issei smirked. "Unless you mean 'in bed', I'm not the kind of guy to serve. Swearing allegiance to anyone, specially someone I don't know enough, is not on my plans."

"Oh? So you _would_ serve in bed?"

Issei shrugged, enjoying the feeling on his head. "I'm not exactly a sub, but I don't see any problem trying it sometimes."

"Oh my…"

"I see," interrupted Rias. "I can't do anything about your saved files, I suppose, and you refuse to become a devil under me… So, what would be the price for your silence?"

Himejima let go of Issei, and he got disappointed but mentally shrugged.

"I want to be an honorary member."

Rias blinked, confused. "Excuse me?"

"While this club is a front for your personal servants, and I doubt you guys would ever need to do any research… you _actuallt are_ the most accurate source of _actual_ occult info I can get. In exchange for keeping the real club a secret, I am asking you to provide me with the information to become an _actual_ Occult Researcher."

Rias blinked, and looked behind Issei as the other club members.

"I that is really your price, then sure. In fact, I have no problem making you an official one even if not a peerage member."

"Awesome!" Issei said standing up with a smile. He was feeling like a huge weight had been removed from his shoulders.

Rias smiled back, and suddenly the oppressive negotiation atmosphere was gone.

"So, what is your first question?" Rias asked happily?

Issei answered by putting a coin in front of her.

She froze. "W-what… what is this?"

"I was told it is a demonic currency called Macca," Issei answered. "Supposedly created by Lucifuge. The material is one I never heard about, and supposedly it can be used as a source of mystical energy. Well, I say supposedly, but I already saw it done."

"By who?" Rias asked, surprised.

"Friend of mine… not available to talk anymore," Issei answered in a low tone.

"I see… I never heard of it before, but it _does_ seems and feels unnatural. Can I hold it for a bit? I have some contacts that could analyze it."

"Feel free, this is not the only one we had. But… I would appreciate if you could find a way to either get more of those or reproduce the energy. I can't find a way to do the same thing without a bit more of it, and can't find a way to convert electricity into it either. I can do the other way around though."

"Curious… What did you use it for?"

Issei started thinking. If he said it was for a magical circle simulation, he'd need to make it clear it worked at least once, and thus she would ask for a copy of the program for them to try fixing it to work with normal energy. The big problem was that, according to Burroughs, a door to the Expanse could be opened easily with a faulty attempt, and he did _not_ want one open, ever if possible.

On the other hand, another way to summon demons would be great, since he could only summon from the Compendium right now and they would cost Macca he could not get anymore.

"I can't tell you," he decided. "I was told it could be really bad if it was used the wrong way, and I don't trust whoever you'll ask for help enough not to try messing with it and killing themselves."

"I doubt it, he is supposed to be one of our strongest after all," Rias answered, "but I suppose it is fair enough for now."

"Among both the strongest and smartest…" Issei said to himself, " _there_ is someone I would hate to be on the wrong side of."

They just kept silent from there on. At first looking at each other's eyes, until Issei got bored and started looking downward.  
Then frowning at the lack of vision due to the desk and her hands, and his eyes wandering around the room.

Rias finally sighed.

"Guess that's it, uh?"

"Yup," Issei agreed. "I won't join your team, but as long as you let me be in the club and actually research the occult I have no problem with you guys."

Rias nodded. "Well, feel free to take some books from that bookshelf over there," she pointed out. "Just be sure to bring them back, they are supposed to be introduction manuals to new devils."

Issei saluted with two fingers, smiling happily. "No problem, Buchou."

Rias sighed, but smiled back. She was disappointed by him not joining her peerage, but at least she got a new club member and friend.

She got the impression she was forgetting something, though.

IIIII

"Hyoudou-kun?" sounded a confused feminine voice.

Issei looked to the source of the voice, smiling at the duo that met his eyes. "Hello Katase, Murayama. What are you doing here?"

"We were looking for—"

"We were going to the bookstore," interrupted Murayama. "But what about you? You've been acting weird ever since you got out of class with Kiba-kun on Monday. Even your performance in the club suffered a bit."

"Oh, that. Well, I was invited to join the Occult Research Club. Hope you girls don't mind that I accepted, I don't think there is anything preventing me from being in both?"

"Are you kidding?" Katase answered. "The ORC is one of the most exclusive clubs of the whole school, of course we don't mind!"

"But I don't think this is what you have been thinking so much about," continued the other.

He _had_ been, really, but not _that part_ of that.

He couldn't help but feel bad by the way the "negotiation" with Rias Gremory did. Sure, she was basically trying to manipulate him into joining them, but her points were right, most would love the positives and ignore the negatives of devilhood. She was born like that, so for her all he would lose was that she would be his boss, and the others seemed to really like working under her.

Sure, after the manipulations of the four archangels and Hikaru (not to be mistaken for the actual Lucifer) resulted in two of his three best friends dying by his hand her own attempts put him in a foul mood, but in her head she was just sweetening the deal and giving him a small show. She held no real malice in her actions.

"I… you girls know Rias Gremory is not from Japan, right? As in not just her parents, she actually moved here some time ago? Well, we had a cultural difference and… I think I sorta overreacted. I still don't like what she did, but she did not _want_ to do anything wrong to me. So I'm trying to find out a way to apologize without making her think she was in the right. …A way to not make her think it is a romantic gesture and make it awkward would be nice too."

The girls looked at him strangely, as if in doubt if they should be angry at him or not. Well, Rias Gremory _was_ extremely popular even among the girls for some weird reason (or not so weird now that he knew she was descendant from one of the original Yuri Traps) so…

"What about something she likes but that would not be seen as romantic?" Murayama asked. "But she doesn't talk much of her tastes besides just a few people, how would we find out her likes…"

Issei thinks a bit… he didn't know her yet to have any idea either, but he _did_ know more than most of the school. …well, he _did_ know that she was a devil and their weaknesse—

He knew that she was a devil. A descendant of Gremory.

Oh yes… he hoped she didn't hate manga, because he had plans of buying one that would be _perfect_ for her.

"…Issei, you _do_ remember you want to _apologize_ to her, right?"

The young man looked at the girls, confused.

"You just had a _really_ evil smile right there…"

"Oh, sorry girls," he said back, rubbing the back of his head. "I just had an idea of an anime to give her. It is related to what happened, but different enough she'd know I am just teasing. I think she would enjoy the story."

That said, he quickly typed a request for Burroughs.

"I agree, Master," the three heard, the girls curious about the AI in Issei's weird smartphone. "She will either love or hate it, but it will be clear that it is an olive branch."

"What is it, what is it?" Katase asked, clearly holding back from bouncing in place in curiosity.

"A surprise."

"Come on!"

"Nope!"

Murayama rolled her eyes, but was still smiling. If someone told her that Hyoudou Issei would ever be considered among her best friends before he joined the club she would think them crazy, but now that she knew this less perverted side of him…

She'd rather they joined her and Katase's dates into one, it being more hanging out than an actual date, she kinda wanted that for a while but despite her outward personality she was a bit shy to approach people… but her friend surprised her in that she was actually curious about seeing how a date with him would go. Her argument that as long as he didn't try to force them to go beyond their comfort zone it would hardly do any harm to the friendship was good too, so she had to accept leaving the friendly outing to another time.

"So, since my problem is dealt with and you girls are here together already, what about we hang out together?" Issei asked, not knowing about Murayama's thoughts.

The girl blinked. "Uh? Bu-but what about the dates?"

Issei blinked back. "What does it matter? I mean, just because we are going to have a date doesn't make us stop being friends… We are friends, right?" he asked, a bit nervous. He had hoped he had at least got friendship from them and… to be honest he was afraid of becoming friendless, he didn't want to lose Matsuda and Motohana's even after everything but was afraid they would leave him now that he wasn't peeping on girls or watching porn with them.

"Of course we are!" Murayama answered, offended. "It's just that…"

"She doesn't act much like it, but she is very shy," Katase explained seriously. "I always need to be the one to drag her around. I'm surprised she is still talking to you before your date."

Issei looked at them surprised. Katase was serious, but smiling at the fiercely blushing Murayama. Seriously, you'd think she had just hit on him without noticing with that blush. He always figured Katase was the shy one, especially with her hidden pervert side.

He smiled. People really were always a surprise, uh?

"Well, since she is let's not waste time and let's go have fun before she changes her min—"

"Kyah!"

Hearing the cute yell, Issei turned to the source on instinct, his eyes quickly focusing into the cute girl's panties… then on the girl itself, who was extremely cute too, especially in that nun-like dress.

Luckily it seemed she had only slipped and fell down.

And then the wind started blowing her veil out of her head right in their direction, exposing her blond hair.

Murayama quickly grabbed it, and the three went into her direction.

"Here miss," she said, giving it back to the girl.

The blonde smiled back at them with gratitude.

Issei clenched his chest painfully, making the three girls look at him worried.

"Too… cute…"

Murayama and Katase wasted no time punching him hard in each arm.

Then the girl said something they did not understand… due to it being in another language.

"Uh…"

"Activating universal translator," Burroughs said helpfully.

"Universal translator?" Katase repeated surprised… and was even more when a slightly digitalized version of voice repeated her words in what they believed to be the blond girl's language.

Issei nodded. "Burroughs can access a server that allows her to translate it simultaneously in any language she can identify."

It was only partially bullshit. The bullshit was the server part, since it was all internal. She only translates in one language too, or rather repeats everything said on it. The thing is, everything is repeated in the Lost Language, being understandable by anyone. In fact, Demolingual even allows communication with some beings even _that_ language wouldn't work on.

"That's so cool," the two girls said, looking at the gauntlet.

"E-excuse me," interrupted the blond girl, before bowing to them. "I am sorry, but I am lost and don't know your language enough yet… since you can understand me…"

"Wait, before anything, I _need_ to tell you something," Issei interrupted.

"Eh?" the blond girl looked confused. She looked at the other girls, and they seemed to be… afraid of what he was going to say?

"You are really, _really_ cute."

"…Ah?"

"That is all. Please continue."

The girl blushed and blinked in confusion. The sighs of relief from his companions were just as confusing.

"Yes, uhm… I was called to this town's church, but I got a bit lost…"

Issei nodded, and turned to his two companions. "I'm going to go with her there, just in case she gets lost. Sorry for not being able to hang out."

Murayama crossed her arms. "As if! Just because you got better doesn't mean we'll leave you alone with someone like her!"

Katase followed her lead. "Yes, after all there is a big chance of a relapse with someone as cute as her!"

"…ok then, suit yourselves," Issei finally said with a shrug. He… couldn't really blame them, she seemed so innocent it was tempting, but he felt bad just thinking about it too so…

He grabbed her suitcase and offered her his free arm, ignoring the protests of not needing to carry it for her.

IIIII

 **The writing process is weird. Sometimes you have a plan. Sometimes you get an idea that is irrelevant to the plan. And sometimes you get a plan, get an idea that seems irrelevant to the plan, yet when things get going you see that your idea completely changed the plan.**

 **Next chapter will involve something I rarely see in DxD fics, even the ones Issei is a human: Issei will accept Asia's invitation to have some tea. Or so was the plan.**

 **Then I had an idea of making Issei spend some time with the two anime-named kendokas, since with the lack of allied humans I thought they, plus the rest of the Perverted Trio, would eventually become important, maybe even Issei's own "faction" (not to self, make scenes with the other perverts too later). As you just noticed though, I had no idea of why they would leave Issei alone after their talk, and thus they will** _ **also**_ **have tea with Asia.**

 **Thus the story starts on its path of developing a life on its own.**

 **As you can see, I decided to give Issei all of Flynn's equipment save for DLC and non-neutral exclusives. Even if I myself never found the Ginza secret shop or the challenge quest to get the Peacemaker, learning of them after I had already started a new run on hard difficulty, I just can't resist the thought of in a future fight everyone seeing a golden warrior carrying a plasma dagger and laser gun.  
Strength of them is relative though. Just because Issei got the strongest gun and sword hiding in his gauntlet doesn't mean they will allow him to one-hit kill everyone until he gets good enough using them. …helps a lot though.**

 **On a smaller note, I know, in the anime Rias had a better excuse for taking a bath right then, since she spent the previous night healing Issei… but the keywork here is** _ **better**_ **, not** _ **good**_ **. As I pointed out she had been the one to call him, so she had plenty of time to do it before then without him seeing… While I have no idea of why it would be done in the anime, since Issei was already her Pawn, here it** _ **is**_ **a very useful thing to be doing when trying to convince a known pervert to work for you.**

 **And finally… I am personally disappointed with the ending of the chapter there. Not at the point I stopped it, it is exactly where I planned, but… it seems so lackluster. My fingers were itching to add an extra scene, like a foreshadow or showing Rias' reaction to her gift, but it is too early in the timeline for either…**


	3. Meeting the Fallen Angels

**First things first, sorry for taking so long to update. I start taking antiepressives again (I know, I shouldn't have stopped in the first place…) and the first thing I do is go back to using RPG Maker…**

 **Quick question: why do people seem to think just because he is in the ORC he is just as much Rias' servant despite not being a devil? That not being a devil makes no difference unless he goes against them? Are there so many stories that say "he will be human and get awesome powers, but the rest of the plot will not change" people expect it all the time now?**

 **Sure, he will try to be friendly with them… but  
1- this is the group of supernatural people whose first action towards him was "join us" instead of "die", so being on good terms is understandable, and  
2- if you guys missed last chapter, even if he is a member of the ORC not only he is not a member of the peerage, he basically is there just to get info on the supernatural – there was a whole blackmail scene of him negotiating info for his silence.**

 **Eventually the three factions got together to defeat bigger problems and were not on each other's throats anymore, but not at this point. And if they try to force him to choose (and considering that in the ORC two of the members have personal hate for one of the two other factions and the rest have no love to lose yet either, they probably will)… he will carve his own path, with or without their help.**

… **ok I lied, it was not so quick a question… Well, the question itself was quick.**

 **Ok, quick warning: the first part of the story is a infodump on MegaTen magic system in-universe. Which is weird considering that this is a different one, but since Issei can still use it he considers it a good enough to give.  
I am **_**not**_ **proud of how it was done, but at this point Asia will use her healing magic without a thought in front of Issei, and here two not-in-the-know characters will be there too… what would** _ **you**_ **do if you saw someone use actual magic in front of you?  
Any better ideas (but showing it later in a flashback, it'd be just teasing readers and as a reader of other stories I know how annoying that can be even if the idea is sound) I'm open to listen. Won't use them **_**now**_ **but I'll keep them in mind for future "infodump" cases.**

IIIII

Murayama and Katase just looked, eyes and mouth wide.

So did Issei.

They were just walking with the nun, talking and getting to know her. She was an _extremelly_ sweet person, so much they would not believe it was possible if the proof was not right in front of them.

Then a young boy nearby got hurt, and she ran to him without any warning, put her hands above his small wound, and emanated a green light from them that healed the boy in front of their eyes.

"Is that light healing the kid?!"

"Why is it green and not yellow?!"

The girls looked at the perverted boy. All three of them, including Asia.

"…what?"

" _That_ is what you are surprised with?" asked Katase.

"Because seriously, in most games healing magic is green," explained Murayama. "It is the fact _it is really happening_ that we are surprised for."

Issei shrugged.

"Don't you shrug me mister!" Murayama said angrily. "Why are you _not_ surprised about a girl with _healing magic_?"

Issei looked at her in his best attempt to make it seem he thought the question was stupid.

"Because… _I already knew_ magic is real? I mean, it _is_ hard to do, most people can't do it anymore and all that, but even I am able to use some magic… even if mine is just a weak Energy Drain."

The kendokas only looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate. The nun was curious, but accepted the explanation.

Because really, she had the ability to heal people. Why would she doubt it?

Issei sighed. He did not want to tell them much about the supernatural, in fear of going in contradiction with the _local_ supernatural, but since he _could_ do Energy Drain the mechanics were at least close even if nomenclature would be different.

"Can we at least talk while we walk? It is not a quick thing."

IIIII

"Now, don't quote me on names of things, it was a scientist that told me this so many of the terms are his and not official," he said seriously, and all three girls nodded. Even Asia, the one able to do magic, seemed to had no idea _how_ it worked.

"There is a biomineral, a mineral made in the body of living beings. Used to be named Magnetite or Biomagnetite, but now is Aether. It is made of dark matter, so most people have no idea it even exists."

"Wait, what?" asked Katase, surprised. "Isn't this that thing that is only _supposed_ to exist in the universe because if it does it does not react to any known kind of energy?"

Issei looked at the girl, surprise in his face. Katase blushed.

"She is a science fiction geek," Murayama replied for her friend.

"Oh… yeah. There is no known way to _prove_ it exists, not as _dark matter_ , but Aether can be distilled so _that_ can be. It is not advertise much though, because… well, from what I know it turns physics upside down. So it is still being experimented on."

By people in other universes.

"It can make a kind of electromagnetic energy or something like that that can be used to power magic. As long as the person has enough magnetite in their body, has enough charge on themselves since using magic drains the energy it makes and it takes some time to recharge, and, this is important, _knows how to use it_."

"Wait, so anyone that knows how to can use magic?" Murayama asked, eyes shining.

Katase murmured something about it not making sense, but Issei did say it turned physics upside down, but it makes no sense…

"Well, if they know a _good_ way to do it," Issei confirmed. "I mean, you can learn to throw lightning, but just making it by will will be _hard_ and will probably empty your tank quickly. You can use rituals to make them do the magic better and make it do other things though, like cure people like Asia here did."

"But I did not use any ritual, Issei-san," the nun pointed out. "But I was told it is a Sacred Gear that lets me do it."

"I never heard of Sacred Gears when I was trying to learn about magic," Issei answered. "But my guess is that yours has its own ritual on it to let you use healing magic, and you are just turning it on and off. Most magic users I know got an item, like the fantasy grimoires, where the rituals are put on and only need to be activated, because using magic properly without an already-made ritual is _hard_! It is like… painting. Sure many people can paint something well with time, but to do magic by yourself you are trying to do a masterpiece in ten minutes."

"I see…" Murayama said. "So while it _is_ possible, only a couple people would be able to actually do something like this."

"But… but… _how_ does it work? Katase finally asked, her thoughts going crazy. "I mean, I guess magic doesn't _need_ to work with physics, but if you have a scientific explanation—"

"Actually some of it does," Issei wanted to point out. "Most magic is based on either heat, cold, electricity or wind, or as we like to call it force since it is more using the wind to carry Kinect energy. And then there is the non-elemental ones, that mostly work with nuclear energy itself. But there are also the harder to explain ones, like Light magic, also known as exorcism ones, and Dark magic. They are more of a spiritual thing and so not many have any idea how they can be explained., healing magic, curses and mind magics, the ones that work like videogame buffs and debuffs… Well, magic is a new, still not very known research field, we got some people that can do an amazing thing and a bunch of those that don't trying to learn how to do it themselves."

Katase nodded, mollified. Asia was frowning however. A very cute frown, but still one.

"I was always told it was a gift from God, though…"

"I never said it isn't, Asia. I personally believe most of the good things we have can be seen as gifts from God for those that believe. How many good things have come to us because someone had an idea out of nowhere that worked? How would you explain an artistic genius? Sure they'd need to work hard to use it, but they still got a gift for that. I'm not a religious person, but I don't see why we would think we learning to do good things would mean God doesn't give us the means to learn them in the first place."

Asia smiled at him, and gave him a small nod.

"Wait…" Murayama's eyes widened a bit. "I just remembered you said you knew to do a magic!" he said, pointing her finger to Issei's face and poking him in the nore.

She then blushed after noticing what she did.

"Cute blush," he couldn't resist saying, accepting the push she gave to make him shut up. "Yeah, it is an Energy Drain, it drains both stamina and a bit of magic energy of whatever I use it on, if they have it, and gives it to me instead, the stamina healing me a bit if I need it. Not a strong magic, in a fight I'd do more damage by giving a nice punch, but I am able to use it to heal some wounds so…"

"Cool!" she said. "But, didn't you say you need a ritual or something to do it for you? If it isn't that strong, why only have this one?"

"Well, it can recharge me to use other magics if I still have the energy to use it, so that's a good one to have for when I learn others. I cheat a bit with it though, instead of an item the ritual is saved on the gauntlet and I just charge the energy to power it. They take a big bit of memory, both space to save and ram to use, but if the gauntlet is full and I want to trade it for another one I just need to erase one saved."

They kept walking in silence, the girls digesting the existence of magic and what could only be considered an infodump on how it was possible to make it work with technology and why it was so rare, and Issei still focused on _why was Asia's healing green_.

"Ah, it must be there!" Asia said as soon as the church got on sight.

"Yep," Issei said. As far as I know it is the only chirch in town. I'm surprised you are going there though, haven't heard of it being in use ever since my childhood friend moved _years_ ago."

"Oh…" Asia said nervously. "Well, I'd like to thank you all for your help, would you mind joining me?"

Issei shrugged. "No problem with me."

Murayama nodded after talking a bit with Katase, "We'll come too."

Asia smiled. "That's great!"

IIIII

 _There was a problem! There was a_ _ **big**_ _problem!_

It was not the church itself, as much as it seemed like it had been abandoned for years. It would be no problem to believe that they were fixing it for reopening.

It was not the three people that clearly were not part of the clergy. While wearing a hat indoors was usually considered disrespectful and the older woman's clothes were a bit too provocative for a church (not that he would ever complain), they and the girl in gothic lolita dress were polite enough. Probably volunteers instead of believers.

No, the problem was the "priest".

There was the mocking eyes when they passed through him, and the lecherous looks when they went through the girls, yes. There was what he really believed was a gun and a plasma sword handle under his coat (the second one was surprising, too).

But what really unnerved him was that he was pretty sure the only reason he wouldn't expect this guy to say "Rejoice, Hyoudou Issei" was because he was more likely to go Ryuunosuke Uryuu than Kotomine Kirei.

Issei didn't really have much experience in this field. Before joining Flynn, he would have been babbling, scared of that person. Flynn was a more silent person than Issei, but in no ways a follower – he would just shake his hand and seemingly ignore him while paying attention for any aggressiveness.

This new Issei had some of the bravery of Flynn, and none of the capacity to hold his tongue yet.

"Hello. I'm sure I won't get along with you, but let's try."

You could hear a pin drop. Not that it is saying much considering churches are made for acoustics so the priest's voice cha be heard by everyone, but everyone else went silent.

"I'm not so sure," the priest laughed, a crazied look in his eyes. "I would love to… _get along_ … with you."

Issei understood. It was a threat, an attempt to freak him out. Not that it wouldn't be followed, it was clear from his eyes that he had no business being a priest, but for now intimidation was the goal.

His eyes widened, not expecting something like that. But he did his best to _not_ bring them back to their normal size so he could counterattack:

"Are you hitting on me?"

"W-what?" the priest spluttered.

"I'm sorry man, but I like women."

"Oh my Freed, I never expected _these_ to be your likes," giggled the younger girl. "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone until you are ready to make it public."

"Oi! I'm not a fag bitch!" protested the priest.

"No one is judging you for your preferences, Sellzen," interrupted the older man. "There is no need to be in denial. I am uninterested in either gender myself."

"Fuck you all!" the priest yelled in fury, walking away grumbling and closing the door to the inside of the church violently.

"Doesn't a priest need to be celibate though?" asked Issei, curious.

"Just a catholic one, mostly," answered the older woman, adjusting her head to look at him with the eye not covered with the fringe of her blue hair. "I am Kalawarner. The older man is Dohnaseek and the blonde in the elaborate dress is Mittelt. The one that walked away is Freed Sellzen, despite the clothes he isn't ranked enough in the church to be a priest."

"I am Ryoudou Issei, these a Murayama, Katase and Asia Argento. Asia has come to be a nun in this church."

"Ah yes, Raynare told us about her—"

At that point their talk was interrupted by a door opening – the same door the not-priest went through.

"Kalawarner," came a female voice, "did you hear anything yet—"

It was a girl that Issei was very familiar with. Long black hair, amethyst eyes, the very same face… even the same clothes as the one she was wearing last time they met.

She stopped, staring at Issei. Issei stared at her.

Then raised his hand.

"Hey there—"

"The fuck?"

 _Everyone_ stepped back when a lance of pink light appeared in Yuuma's hand.

"What… what are you doing here? Kalawarner, what is he doing here?"

Issei huffed, pretending to relax. "Geez, you'd think _I_ was the one that ruined the date."

Everyone present but Issei and Yuuma gasped, for different reasons.

"She's the one that tricked you into a date just to break your heart?"

"He's the one you were supposed to kill?"

Eyes widened this time.

This time including Yuuma's.

"You told them I just tricked you to break your heart?"

"Yeah," Issei confirmed. "But I made sure to tell them how regretful you were when the time arrived to do it, and only did it because it you were too regretful of it to keep lying to me."

"I see you forgot to mention I also tried to pierce your stomach with an energy spear," the girl added, eye twitching.

Three gasps this time, and three people assuming what were clearly supposed to be fighting positions.

"Pah, details," the young man dismissed. "Already healed. The Yuuma-shaped hole in my heart still remains though."

"The real name is Raynare," the girl said, rolling her eyes… then hardening them. "And how _did_ you survive a _hole_ in your stomach? I'd ask if you sold your soul to a devil, but I can feel you are still human."

"Yup. No soul-selling. It is up for rent though. And the last renter was pretty considerate, it is in even better condition than before."

A childish giggle echoed through the church, surprising everyone.

"And even threw in a very welcome, if surprising bonus."

 _Everyone_ jumped back, the four people that were previously in the church acting as if ready to throw something while the kendoka fumbled for something to use as swords, when a girl materialized out of nowhere just to hug Issei's waist.

"Issei, what the—" Murayama started, just before Katase covered her mouth.

"Oh, this is Alice. She is a super ghost. We met some time ago, and for some weird reason she liked me enough she decided to follow me home."

"A super ghost?" Asia asked, the only one with enough supernatural knowledge not to be too surprised but not enough to feel like running away for her life at her energy.

"Something happened while she was dying and she got powers. But since she was dying at the time, the powers are mostly linked to death, like bringing someone mostly dead – but not completely dead – back to life and, unless the other one is powerful or lucky enough, killing most beings… _just by asking them politely._ "

Everyone just _looked_ at him.

"What… the… hmph!"

"What she almost said," agreed Dohnaseek.

"I'm trying to cut her back on it?" Issei finished lamely.

"And how... how much progress did you make?" the now named Raynare asked, in a fearful tone.

That tone was because Alice was looking at her with a look of utter loathing.

"Well, you're still alive. As in, you in particular."

"Why me? What did I do?"

"Do you mean besides trying to kill someone she clearly likes?" Katase added from the other side of the big room.

"Not so much, she is a ghost powerful enough to make a solid body remember? Killing someone close to her isn't so much of a problem save for the fact I wanted to keep living," Issei explained. "Her reasons are more… well…"

The young girl turned to him, her light blue eyes shining with ethereal power. "It is _not_ childish! It is important to me!"

"I never said it was!"

"You were thinking it! And on other words to call it I wouldn't notice!"

"Also, what is the problem with it being childish? You're a child!  
…Is crossing your arms and pouting supposed to make me apologize? You're too cute like that for it to work."

Mittelt slowly approached Dohnaseek and Kalawarner. "What is going on here?"

"That superpowerful ghost girl wants to kill Raynare for some reason besides trying to kill her friend, and not said almost-killed friend is trying to convince her not to," to woman replied.

Mittelt nodded. "That's what I got too. So, is anyone else still confused even though they know exactly what seems to be going on?"

"I think everyone but those two," agreed the man.

"Fine!" Alice finally said. "But I'm buying a second slice of cake!"

She then disappeared.

"…ok, what just happened?" Raynare asked after a while.

"I just saved your life," Issei answered, matter-of-factly.

"…ok, two things wrong with that," she said, raising two fingers. "One, I tried to kill you."

"I don't blame you," Issei said. "I've wanted to try killing my best male friends in a while. You just slipped."

"That's just disturbing."

"The wanting to kill or the admitting it? And be honest."

"The admitting it, actually."

"That is male friendship for you. You just don't get it because you aren't a man."

"Well said," agreed Dohnaseek.

"You, zip it. And you, two. If it was not for killing you, or… trying…"

"Well, you got close. But you left while I was just mostly dead, not completely, so she could bring me back."

Seeing Dohnaseek preparing himself to reply to a question she almost felt compelled to asking, Raynare decided to be cruel and ignored it.

"Then why _did_ she want to kill me?"

With a commiserating look to the other male present, Issei answered as if it was obvious: "you stole her line."

"I… stole her line?" Raynare repeated, as if doing so made the words make more sense.

"That's why she herself said it is childish, but it was still important to her. That line has been her signature for years."

With a sigh, Raynare relaxed her body in defeat. "And what line was that?"

"You, my dear, was lucky enough to say, word for word, the sentence 'would you please Die For Me'."

Everyone just looked at the two for a while. Issei shrugged. Raynare just stood there with her mouth open.

"Polite little killer, isn't she?" Dohnaseek finally said, both as a compliment to Alice and making fun of Raynare.  
Somehow he made it work.

"So…" Issei said, taking advantage of the older man's break, "does that mean all of you are actually Fallen Angels? Is Asia-san one too?"

"Wait, what—ew!"

Looking smug as Katase cleaned her hand, Murayama pointed to Issei, angrily. "You better explain it all to us, mister!"

Issei shrugged, but did so. "My date with Raynare-san here was actually her attempt to get close to me so she could kill me under orders, since she was told I have something that would be a danger to them. She seemed like she didn't really want to do it, so I forgave her. Alice brought me back from the brink of death anyway, so no harm done.  
I then joined the school's Occult Research club as a honorary member because the actual members have connections with the supernatural and could give me more info, with the one I was searching the most being about who would send her to kill me instead of trying to recruit me."

Raynare nodded. "That was it, yes… and you kinda raise a good point. I mean, as far as I know Azazel-sama is more into collecting and researching Sacred Gears, so why was I told we would gain his favor by…" she then shook her head. "But it doesn't matter. After all, the orders still came from high up in the chain."

But the seed of doubt was now in all the four fallens' minds.

"By the way, why aren't we trying to kill him right now?" asked Mittelt, confused. "I mean, now we know who he is who we should. It's not like that ghost is still here."

Everyone but Issei tensed at that, the two kendokas and the nun's eyes widening.

Raynare shrugged. "Already botched it."

"Doesn't seem sportish," agreed Dohnaseek.

"He seems like a nice enough person," added Mittelt.

"Just don't feel like it," Kalawarner summarized the reason of all four.

Raynare sighed. "Oh and no, Asia is not one of us. She got her reasons for coming, but being one of us is not it.  
Neither is that fake priest."

"Ok, I'll make it clear right now… I guess if that's all Issei can tell us—"

"Devils do exist. They are descendants from the Ars Goetia guys… even if some of those are supposedly Fallen Angels. Didn't get info enough to figure out how that works though, since I just found out that there is a difference between devil, demon and The Devil."

"Well don't ask us, none of us was much for history," Kalawarner said.

"Even though Dohnaseek _is_ history!" added Mittelt.

"I'd say something… but I'm the only one of us over twenty-five, nevermind my two centuries. But it is still _much_ older than that, so…"

Issei nodded in understanding.

"Wait, what? Demon, devil and The Devil?"

"Demons are supernatural beings, like Alice," Issei explained. "The original meaning, coming from the greek daemon, has no relation to behavior. Devils I already told what I know. The Devil is supposed to be _the_ Fallen Angel, strongest angel before falling and leader of the forces against God. And I don't know enough about fallen angels, all I know is that they are supposed to be angels who sinned, most of the known ones being those that joined The Devil's rebellion."

"Pretty much," Kalawarner agreed. "Despite a few of us falling from time to time, the book of us, and thus the banner under wich we organize for protection, is the Grigori."

"Drakengard!" Issei said suddenly, in a tone like a tv show catchphrase.

Everyone looked at him.

"Grigori means Watcher."

It was said as if it explained everything.

"Were we supposed to get that?" Mittelt asked. "Is it some kind of human culture thing?"

"No idea from here either, so no," denied Murayama.

Issei visibly slumped.

"I get it, Master," Burroughs tried to help.

"Tried" being a keyword, because now every fallen was looking at him fearfully. And were now clearly armed with spears made of colored light.

"Alright, what other killing ghost do you have there now?"

"…uhm, none?" Issei replied, slowly putting his hand on his back to get the weapons hidden there.

"Yeah, it's just his gauntlet's AI," Murayama replied.

"It is a pretty cool one, too," added Katase. "Wish they were for sale yet…"

The fallen angels let go of their weapons… hesitantly.

"So… what do you thing about devils and fallen angels now that you know both?" Raynare asked trying to change the subject, not noticing the two schoolgirls looking at each other from the fact Issei did _not_ mention knowing both, just _about_ both.

Issei, not noticing this, shrugged. "I'll think of them in a case-by-case basis. I mean, they are just more extreme cases of Rousseau versus Hobbes. Only fallen angels are a bit more Rousseau than humans, since they start as angels, while devils a bit more Hobbes."

"That is surprising," joined Dohnaseek, who despite being a battle nut enjoyed a philosophical talk from time to time. "I'd guess fallen would be more in line with Hobbes' philosophy, since we are fruit of an angel sinning."

"Not really, you are that same angel that sinned, you just now know how it feels. It is as someone said once, 'Adam did not eat the apple because he desired it, he ate it because it was forbidden.' Sure, angels have less of it, but either by curiosity or the bad luck of doing a sin by accident you ended up biting the fruit and kicked out of Heaven for it. Just as the original fruit did not turn humans evil, just let us know what was good or evil, now you had a whole new world of actions you couldn't be punished more anyway for doing, so indulging for a bit is understandable.  
It depends on how you indulge in them that I will judge you for. You did not lose your sense of right and wrong, you just noticed that you _can_ do wrong. As long as you use that sense well…"

Dohnaseek nodded, having no real counter-argument at the time.

In fact, all four were pensive, seeing if they could judge themselves good or bad people by their actions, regardless of their darkened wings.

Issei turned to the girls, and frowned. They were talking to each other, without his gauntlet catching their voices to translate for Asia, and were pale.

"Hey girls, what's wro—"

And just then the inside doors were open violently, the fake priest smiling as if something really good was going to happen.

"Hey, new girl. Come, it is time to work and it is close enough. Time to prove you can push your weight."

Burroughs translated it from Italian to Japanese, but the priest got out of the church smiling so much he didn't even notice.

Alarm bells rang on Issei's mind. That priest reminded him of Baal when baiting people to feed on…

Asia apparently didn't notice though, since she hurriedly bowed apologetically and followed him.

"We better be going too," he said in a stiff smile. The two girls nodded, still a bit pale. "We can always come back and talk to you four and Asia again…?"

"Hey, could you bring Alice again next time?" Mittelt asked. "I must be close in age to her when she died, maybe we could do something together?"

"No problem with me," he agreed, and left with a smile and a bow to the four.

Outside, it was dark, the three not noticing how late it got since they were somewhere closed. He could still see the two humans in the distance.

"Do you two think you can get home safely by yourselves? I'm a bit worried about Asia alone with that freaky guy."

Murayama snorted. "You just had a friendly talk forgiving someone that tried to kill you, and said you'll come back. You have no room to call anyone freaky."

Katase rolled her eyes, reading her friend's true thoughts. "We'll just go get something to use as a sword if we need it. Send us a message when you get wherever they are going to."

Issei nodded, and went on his way.

IIIII

He followed the two until a house in the suburbs. Approaching in hiding, he jumped the fence as soon as the two were out of sight.

"Master!" Burroughs called, alarmed, "A barrier was raised around the house!"

Right after then, Issei heard strong hits to the back door, and soon it clearly made a breaking sound. Not wasting any time, he did the same to the front one, judging it faster than running around the house.

He arrived just in time to tackle the fake priest right as he was prepared to cut into a guy around Koneko's age with… a lightsaber.

Well, not really, it was more like an artificial light spear. Else it would burn the ground it cut when the wielder was hit.

"What the—You! You piece of shit. Why are you stopping me from killing this piece of crap that was making a deal with a shitty devil?"

Now Issei had many answers to give. How killing was wrong (ignoring the fact he and Flynn killed people too). How he did not do anything wrong yet. How as far as he knew if the deal didn't hurt anyone else it was not worthy of killing him for. How he just didn't go with the fake priest's face.

Issei quickly measured his options and went with the only one he judged his opponent would not laugh off.

"Because fuck you, that's why."

Freed still laughed, but not of the words.

"I changed my mind. I like you. Too bad I'm going to kill you now."

He raised his light sword, and in his other hand he raised a gun.

Issei didn't answer, moving his hands to his back.

The next moment, Freed's sword was stopped not by Issei's skin like he expected, but by a small blade that seemed filled with energy.

The fake priest looked at this confused… then opened a wide grin, jumping backwards and pointing his gun at Issei.

"Meh, I enjoy killing shitty devil sympathizers close and personal, but I've got a schedule to keep. So if you don't—Gah!"

The gun clattered to the floor, the arm that used to hold it pierced by a bullet itself.

"You son of a—"

He had to jump back again, screaming in pain, to avoid again a cut from Issei's knife – Issei who landed on his knees and pocketed the dropped gun.

"You fucking bitch!"

"Father Freed? I heard something loud here, is everything alright?" asked Asia's voice, entering the room from behind Freed.

It was just then that Issei remembered why he came in the first place.

"Issei-san? Why are you and Father Freed fighting?"

"He wanted to kill that kid over there," Issei pointed with his head to the boy hiding behind the sofa.

"Wha—why would he—"

"Because this piece of shit was trying to make a deal with a shitty devil. That is what our job is, Asia-chan, we kill the shitty devils and the shitty people that associate with them."

"Also apparently can only use one curse word your entire life."

"You people are not worthy better curse words! I only call you the names you deserve."

"I know it is hard to believe, but the world is not comprised of your inbred family."

"Grrr… That's it, You're going down!"

Free went to the attack once more, damaged arm dangling behing him. Asia, meanwhile, went to check on (and if needed heal) the kid the fake priest almost killed.

And once again his attack was stopped by Issei's dagger.

"Not if I hold my breath not to smell yours!"

"You son of a whore! I have years of exorcism training and experience and will _not_ —"

"Really? I'd be in real trouble if you ever used them."

"That's it! You're dead now."

"You keed saying something like that, I don't think you really know what that word means."

Just then, a magical circle appeared in the room and a figure emerged from it.

"Excuse me for being late," said the familiar voice of Himejima. "Koneko-chan is a bit occupied and asked… if I… could… Ara? What is going on?"

"Nothing important," said Issei.

"Your ass!" replied Freed.

"Look, it may not be of your tastes, you are not of mine either, but there is no need to be insulting!"

Freed charged Issei, nearly frothing at the mouth.

The younger boy just dodged.

"That was an insult that did not use shit or crap variations, though. We are making progress."

" _What the fuck is going on here?_ " came _yet another_ known voice, this time from the door.

"Oh, hey there Raynare-chan."

"Don't 'hey there' me, what are you doing?"

"Apparently a fight so one-sided I'm feeling bad for winning."

"I'll show you one-sided you piece of chicken shit!"

Freed charged Issei from behind… who quickly dodged and hit him in the leg, making him trip and his sword to fly under a couch.

Issei then shot him in the other knee too, for good measure.

"I see. I have been proven wrong, _that_ wasn't enough to be one-sided. I thank you for the lesson."

"Ufufu."

Issei bowed to Himejima.

"Bu—how? I mean I don't like him, no, I can't really stand him, but for all his faults he is one of the most experient exorcists—"

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Issei's hand began to laugh.

Well, the AI in his gauntlet.

"Let's try to ignore her. She has no lungs, so she'll take some time to stop."

Raynare nodded. "As I was saying, Sellzen is one of the most experient—" "BWAHAHAHAHA—" "exorcists our organization could get on our side. I'm not any sad about this, but… _how_?"

"Oh, it's pretty simple. He may be stronger, faster, and have cooler hair, but he underestimated me at the beginning and has been too angry to use his head well after that."

"HAHAHA! EXPERIENCED! HAHAHA—!"

"Ignore her."

"Riiight… I'll just take Asia and… ugh, Sellzen back to the church." Raynare then pulled the still complaining (and cursing) priest.

Asia bowed to Issei and followed her, smiling despite everything.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, can we leave this whole thing for another day?" asked the boy nervously. "I… kinda want to curl up in bed and cry right now."

"Understandable," Issei said, patting his head before kneeling beside the couch and getting the now-deactivated light sword. "I'll get going then. Goodbye man, hope next time we meet it is in better circunstances. See you later, Himejima-san."

"Wait Ise-kun, I want to talk to you a bit!"

"Oh, ok. I'll wait for you outside then."

IIIII

"Ise-kun," Akeno finally said, some time after they were walking alone, with a clearly fake smile, "why were you talking so calmly with the fallen angel?"

"We made up," Issei shrugged. "We are not dating again, at least I don't think I could do it in a while, but we are at least on friendly terms, I think."

Akeno stopped, making Issei look at her.

"She was the one that tried to kill you… yet you forgave her? Just like that?"

"Hardly," he answered with a snort. "She still got a lot to do before she is completely forgiven. …Not as much as I made her think though."

"That's… nice…" was all Akeno could say.

Issei noticed her eye was twitching a bit, but chose not to comment.

"But Ise-kun, you know that devils and fallen angels are enemies, don't you?"

"Yes, you guys told me so. The fallen angels I met may also have mentioned it, not sure."

"So… you are going to be friendly with the fallen angels… while being a member of the ORC?"

He shrugged again. "It is not like I am a devil."

"But you are well aware that the ORC is a front for a devil peerage, aren't you?"

"Not at all!" he answered with a smile.

"…what?"

"Well, it is being used as one, yes, but that's because all members there but me are members of your boss' peerage. It is actually a school club, and thus it is supposed to be neutral."

The twitch was increasing. "What I am saying is, you should stop hanging out with the enemies of all other club members, Ise-kun. It could cause… _conflict_ within the club."

"I see no reason it would do so if my meetings with them are not during sanctioned club activities," he replied. "But if it would make you feel better, I'll have a talk with Gremory tomorrow. If she agrees with you… well, I'll have no choice," he finished with a sigh.

The twitch left Akeno's eye, her smile getting warmer.

"I mean, I can't have a school club commanding how I live my life and wich friends I make, and while the club would give me plenty of information during school time I think my new friends would not be too bothered taking up the slack. They are just as aware of the occult as the other ORC members, after all, even if their focus is another area."

Oh, false alarm. There they were, a stronger twitch and colder smile than ever.

"I see," Akeno answered, her voice as cold as her smile. "Are you sure of that, Hyoudou-san?"

"Well, if it is trying to control my life and doesn't offer anything I can't get elsewhere… oh, by the way, ORC if said as one word is 'orc'… think the rest of the club would like to play some D and D someday? I don't mind DM-ing for a bit, but I'd like to play sometime too—"

His questioning was interrupted by Akeno leaving in a magic circle without even a goodbye.

"Wow," was all Issei could say.

"Yeah. Rude much?" agreed Burroughs.

IIIII

 **At this point you may have noticed that I went through a whole apparent non-sequitur about how magic works in the MegaTen verse. That was not a hundred percent confirmed, but I extrapolated it from the wikia explanation for the various elements.**

 **But why? Because in the future these things** _ **will**_ **be relevant: Magnetite aka Aether is the energy source of MegaTen magic and comes from living beings, you can use pre-prepared and digitalized rituals to perform magic.**

 **Basically that whole part was to explain these two points for the future, too bad just saying it like that wouldn't be good enough for the characters. Poorly done? I think so, and I was the one who wrote it. But at least it won't come out of left field for those not familiar with MegaTen.**

 **The "Drakengard!" line is a nod to TheDarkId's Let's Plays in the lparchive.**

 **Yes, Issei won the battle a little too easily… but it is not like Freed had a special weapon in this battle that made him fight better. He underestimated Issei and lost use of an arm, then lost his cool and lost most fighting ability. Issei, on the other hand, kept his cool and had all the experience of a whole SMT game, even if he lost the physical abilities.  
I didn't think it was really a contest this time.**

" **Why Akeno?" Why not? The only options were Kiba and her, since Rias supposedly rarely does the jobs herself and the reason Issei went there, in the anime at least, was that Koneko could not. And she was the one that noticed the Fallen getting close there, so…  
But again, sending Kiba would be a bit boring. His beef is with the church, not the Fallen. The result would probably be the same for next chapter onwards, but this one…**

 **And I think I got the personality of the two girls already in my head… Murayama is actually shy so she counters this by talking as much as she can push it with false confidence, while Katase is a more quiet and not-so-obsessed female Issei – meaning many things others would be weirded about Issei, Katase would understand and they would be weirded by** _ **that**_ **instead. And since they are almost always together, most of the talking comes from Murayama and no one notices.**


	4. Rescue the Nun

**I'm really glad so many people liked the last chapter. And specially so many people commented on the humor.**

 **I admit, I don't consider myself funny. But again, I was the one writing that chapter, so the jokes may have been much less funny to me because of it.**

 **That said … in this chapter, I go a bit away from SMT4 canon. Something that, save for Issei's soul being together with Flynn's through his adventure (that I took from another series), I was trying to avoid…**

 **You see, as far as I'm aware your only chance to learn from Demon Whispers is when the demon learns its final skill. But in this chapter I introduce the concept of Issei learning from already-fully-powered demons.**

 **I justify this to myself that in the game that was a gameplay mechanic and that nothing would stop Issei from simply asking the demons to teach him again. Still, I thought it would be only fair to warn you guys.**

 **Also, sorry for taking so long. I am also making an RPG Maker game, but I'm not leaving this alone. When I noticed I was writing the chapter with Kokabiel and neglected this one. I'll move that one to my planned and maybe-useable drafts (who knows if things won't change too much to be able to use it)…**

IIIII

"I completely understand your point of view, Hyoudou-kun," Rias Gramory said, in a… well, understanding tone of voice.

"You do?" Issei repeated, in a surprised tone of voice.

" _You do?_ " Himejima also repeated, in a betrayed tone of voice.

"I do," Rias repeated for confirmation, then sighed. "Akeno, for as much as it is not for us, for Hyoudou-san this is nothing more than a school club. And the fact is, it is, on paper. Our group's relationship goes beyond the club, as much as we use it as our base of operation and… well, excuse me for pointing it out, escaping the school to hang out together in peace. You are the one confusing the two. Not that I blame you."

Himejima calmed down a bit, but was even more annoyed now.

"Akeno, I understand your problem, but Hyoudou-kun does not. He is not a devil, and he has no personal reason for disliking them save for that one instance he already forgave them for. All he is for us right now is the member of a _school club_."

Akeno's eyes narrowed. "Does this have anything to do with the package you got this morning?"

"The one you were with me all the time since I got it and know I had no chance to open?" Rias countered in the same tone, before softening her voice. "Akeno, you are confusing the club with the peerage, and until we got a member outside the peerage I could not blame you for it. But now we got someone that is not one of us, one that does not share our problems with them."

Akeno was not understanding it. "So you'll just let him stay with us while… while…?"

"I am, because I have no reason not to. Akeno, he is _not_ one of us as in the peerage. He is only a member of a school club. And even if I wanted to, I have _no grounds_ to punish him for who he is friends with outside _school club_ activities."

She did not get an answer. The only answer Akeno gave her old friend was leaving the room in a rush.

Rias sighed. "I am sorry, Hyoudou-kun. Akeno has got some… bad experiences with Fallen Angels."

"I can understand it. But _she_ needs to understand that just because some people of a group, even the majority, you met were bad does not mean everyone there is.  
…this ended up much more childish than I wanted it to."

Rias held back a chuckle, but smiled. "Don't worry, I get the idea. But again, don't take that against Akeno. I swear she is a very sweet person if she considers you a friend—"

"Rias Gremory!" came the voice Issei identified as coming from… Sona Shitori, the school's Student Council President?

"Sona. This is not a good time," Rias answered, sighing.

"I think I'd better leave…"

"No, don't. it involves you," interrupted Shitori. "And I'm already aware you know about Rias' group."

She then turned to the other girl in the room.

"I'll tell you what is not a good time," was Sona's reply. "It is being approached by two of the best female members of the kendo club, and then being told that we need to protect a male member because 'the Occult Research Club is being controlled by a devil and they are trying to take Hyoudou-kun into their evil ranks'. I was able to convince them to let me check, but they are not calmed down yet."

Issei blinked at that.

Rias was not amused.

"Issei-kun, what have you promised regarding telling them about the supernatural?"

Issei raised an eyebrow. "…nothing? I mean, I said I wasn't gonna tell anyone about _your club_ in particular, but only that."

"Then why are they thinking Rias is a devil, Hyoudou-san?"

"They aren't. From what you said, they think the club summoned a demon or something and are being influenced by it. Kinda close, but not the same."

"And they are thinking so, because…?"

Issei crossed his arms, a proud smile on his face. "Probably figured it out when the fallen angels we met could tell I met a devil just from being told I was a member of the club. I must say, I never thought they were dumb, but I myself would have trouble making the connection."

"Why were they with you when you met the fallen angels?" Rias asked, surprised by that.

"Because they already were at the place we were taking the magic user we found to."

"Hyoudou-san, I think it is best if you told us all that happened," said Sona, rubbing the ridge of her none to calm down.

"Well, ok… The three of us met in the park. We also met someone, a young nun, lost in town, so we decided to help her find the church. On the way she healed someone with magic, so I had to explain to the two how magic works as far as I know."

"Wait, you know how to use magic?" Rias asked, eyes wide.

"I know the basics," he shrugged. "It is basically equations powered by magnets for humans."

The two devils blinked at that. "Powered by magnets"?

"But the only magic I got right now is Energy Drain, that turns other energy sources into both health and magical energy for myself. It is not flashy, but it is useful."

"Indeed seems so," Sona agreed. "Please go on."

"Well, after that talk we got to the church, where we met some people we only found out were fallen angels when a girl I dated once showed up and threatened me with a light spear because she left me for dead last time we had met."

He shrugged.

The two girls gaped.

"Don't worry, we parted ways on friendly terms… mostly."

"Just… Just leave, please," Rias finally said, exhasperated.

IIIII

"He is… not what I expected, really," said Sona as soon as Issei left the room.

"Yes. He is still a bit lecherous, but he learned a lot of self-control out of nowhere."

As Rias prepared the chess board, Sona thought a bit.

"Do you think it is his Sacred Gear's influence?"

"Maybe. Koneko said it is powerful, so it'd probably be able to communicate. But I doubt it, he seemed really surprised in finding out he had one."

"I see… and do you still plan on recruiting him?"

Rias bit her lower lip, thinking. "He doesn't seem to want that… but he'd be a great boon to follow my plans. Maybe with time I can convince him, I have until graduation at least…"

"Oh, that reminds me," Sona said, annoyed, "please refrain from having personal items delivered to the school."

"…Excuse me? I did no such thing, Sona."

"I see. So it was probably an admirer. I'm surprised though, it seemed the kind of thing you would buy. …or my sister…"

"What?"

Her only answer was being given a box of dvds with a message.

"We didn't read it, just checked if it was anything dangerous."

Rias' eyes shone. The message was a simple one, "sorry for being such a pain - Hyoudou Issei".

She wasn't sure if she should be insulted or not, but the blu-ray edition of Devilman Lady wasn't anything she would complain about getting.

IIIII

"Issei-san?" called a familiar voice as Issei jogged through the park.

He had been training a bit since he came back, true, but while Raynare gave him a scare it was the fight with the fake priest that showed him how below Flynn he still was. Even if he won.

"Oh, Asia! What are you doing here?"

The nun, instead of answering, just looked down saddened. Seemed like something bad had happened…

Oh, right, she was living with a crazy asshole.

Issei rubbed his chin, thinking on how to raise her spirits.

"Hey Asia, want to eat something? On me."

"Uh? Oh, sure."

Issei took her to a nearby burger shop. They were not a fast food per se, but neither were they very expensive and had a nice selection.

Asia was clearly confused. He bought a cheese and salad burger for her, and she just kept looking at it.

"Never ate a burger before?" he asked with a smile. Asia answered by lowering her head.

"Well, it is simple. Watch. First you grab the burger…" He then proceeded to grab the burger, "and _eat it_!" and he bit it, doing his best to make a loud bite.

"Wow, I never would have imagined it could be eaten like that!"

The reference was lost on her. But her embarrassment was gone, so that was good enough.

She shyly took her burger and took a small bite.

"It's delicious!"

"Yup. This place has great burgers."

They ate their food quietly for a bit.

"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday," Issei said after some time.

"It… it was not your fault."

"I know. But now you know, and need to spend time with that… _person_ …" Issei censored himself, "despite knowing what he does. Well, I think it is better to know, but it is still a terrible thing."

"Thank you, Issei-san."

"Hey, hey, no 'Issei-san'. We are friends, right? Call me Ise."

Asia's smile only widened. "Yes! Thank you, Ise!"

"No problem, Asia-chan. So, wanna have some fun since we got some free time?"

Asia didn't need to think much about it. "I'd love to!"

IIIII

And thus the two of them spent some time at the nearby arcade. Issei even got her a plushy from a catch machine.

But Issei couldn't help but feel like Asia was still saddened by something.

"I never had so much fun in my life," the nun said.

"I'm glad. It was fun for me too," Issei replied, buying a soda.

"Yes… I'm glad I was able to live this happiness."

"Eh, don't speak like that, it makes it sound like you are about to die."

But the somber mood didn't leave. Issei looked at Asia. Her face was sad, and serious.

"My parents left me soon after I was born," she started telling him. "I was told I was found in front of a church in a small European town, where I was raised.  
When I was eight, a wounded dog, near death, entered the church. I prayed for him as much as I could, and when I noticed, there had been a miracle. Soon after, I was taken to a cathedral, where I was destined to heal sickness and wounds of Christians from around the world. I was so happy to be able to help so many people!  
Then, one day, I found a man on the ground, badly hurt. But… the man was…

I was turned into a heretic, because I had the ability to heal even demons. But… I never stopped praying to God, showing my gratitude."

"Those… hypocritical bastards." Issei said, fury clear in his voice.

"Issei-san?"

"Aren't they Christians? Isn't one of their tenets to do good without caring for who they are helping? You should be praised for your ability to help regardless of sides, not punished!

You are not the one in the wrong here, Asia. _They_ are!"

"But Issei-san—"

"Breasts, Asia," he replied on instinct.

"W-what?"

"Regardless of what they act like, they are just humans. They cannot speak for your god unless he says so. They are in the wrong, and I am sure that if your Christ was here he would _love_ what you did!"

Asia still seemed to feel bad, but still gave him a smile. "Thank you, Issei-san."

"No problem, It is the truth after all. Besides, we are friends, right? Helping you feel better is the least I can do."

"F-friends… I always dreamed of having a friend…"

"Well, you better have more dreams, because this one is already fulfilled. …unless you don't want it?"

"I'd love it!"

"What a touching scene…" came a teasing voice from, followed by a figure in revealing clothes landing near them.

Issei just turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "Wanna join us, Raynare-chan? By the way, can I call you Ray-chan for short?"

"I'm sorry, but it is time for Asia to go."

"No! I don't want to come back to a place where I need to kill people!"

"Do not worry, I assure you that you definitely will not need to kill anyone." The fallen angel's voice did not sound reassuring.

"She does not seem to want to go with you," Issei said, drawing his hidden blade.

"I noticed. Unfortunately, we have orders from up high to bring her back or kill her."

"We?"

The other three fallen angels floated down around the two, locking them inside a square.

"Don't worry, we need her alive until the ritual is done in about… two hours. As long as she cooperates, she will live until then. Of course, if a fight happens right now we can't be blamed for killing her to avoid her power falling in a devil's hands."

"Ritual?" Issei asked, confused.

"What does it matter? With our defenses you wouldn't be able to save her, even if you had the help of your school's devils. And don't think we'd hold back just because it is you, or our superiors would have our hides."

Issei nodded. Message received loud and clear.

"Asia, don't worry. Give me some time and I'll be there to help you."

Asia didn't seem to get the message, but nodded anyway. "I trust you, Ise-san."

She stepped forward, and Raynare enveloped her in her wings. Next thing, the four fallen angels, and Asia, seemed to hape disappeared in their own shadows.

"…Neat."

IIIII

Issei was conflicted. Raynare had advised him to ask for help from the devils, but from Himejima's behavior he was pretty sure at least she would not hold back.

…wait, she only said that because she thought (probably with good reason) that Issei would not be able to do it alone.

So all he had to do was not be alone. And since he wouldn't put other humans in danger, the fallen were the opponents and he wouldn't risk a battle between them and the devils even if warned…

Issei sighed. Time to bite the bullet and do it.

"Burroughs, please try to open the Fusion App. Let's hope it works…"

"At once, Master," replied the AI.

An holographic screen appeared, lines of light blue making tube-like shapes over a blue background.

"Mido, are you connected?"

"Ooooh…" came the answer, and an holographic pixelated head of a man with a long white beard, shades and a small blue hat appeared. "Long time no see. Ah, you look a bit different, but in my line of work I learned to see the… _essence_ of what I see. Welcome back."

"Hello Mido. I am in a world unconnected to the Amala Network as far as is known. Can still access the Comphendium?"

"Oh, my young boy, nothing is really unconnected," replied the hologram, "the usual way is just closed. But my connection comes from a more… exclusive path.  
It will take a bit more Macca, but it will all be accessible… assuming you are able enough to summon them."

"Burroughs is still as upgraded as last time," replied Issei, ignoring the "young boy" line. After all, Mido probably was older than Mikado itself.

"Good, good. That will increase your lock for _fusing_ them.  
Unfortunatelly your problem is not so much fusing right now, but getting the materials… both in demons and in Macca."

Issei groaned a bit. "Yeah… until I can find a source, I'll need to ration the Macca I use… But I _really_ need some help right now, and since I need to keep the people I'll face alive for the most part Alice would be in danger if she holds back enough."

"Very well. I look forward for you to find either source. Meanwhile…"

"I was thinking the basics for now, all four elements and a healer. So Jack Frost and Apsaras. It'll also be useful that in the future they can Demon Whisper all five to me."

Issei was praising his past self/Flynn right now for giving wide-range attacks of the other three main elements to Jack Frost. Apsaras was not the most powerful, but was the cheaper healer he had… and even then it was not a bad one either, it being a wide-area heal.

"Very well," replied the old man hologram.

After a quick loading bar filled, Issei summoned his two new old demons.

Jack Frost looked like a plump teddy bear of a snowman, a chubby white body with a blue horned cap and jester costume. It was actually once an abominable snowman, but changed form, some speculate to better freeze people.

Apsaras was a blue-skinned and darker-blue-haired woman of Hindu appearance and a white swimsuit with some gems and a tiara, holding a white veil. Fitting for a water spirit who was both a dancer for the gods and a Hinu version of a Valkyrie.

The three nodded, ready. Alice pouted, but went to rest inside the Gauntlet, aware that she would only come out if things got bad.

Time to mount a rescue operation.

IIIII

Freed was bored. It was almost time for the ritual and no one came to fight him.

Oh, he knew they would. Raynare said she had told the bastard that defeated him about it, and there was no way that good-two-shoes would just let the doormat die.

His murderous thoughts were filled with glee though when the doors were pushed open with great force, and through them he could see… a golden armor?

Well, the chest and helmet were golden, plus some details, but most of it was black.

He was slightly annoyed… until he heard the digitalized voice.

"Oh, it's you."

That voice. That voice! That was that little shitstain's voice! He could recognize it clearly through the electronic distortion!

This time, he followed the bastard's _modus operandi_ and fired his gun as soon as possible!

The aim was true, the shot hit the devil-lover right in the heart!

It would be a little disappointed, but Freed wasn't caring right now. He was waiting for the gasp of realization, the spill of blood from the wound, the… the ping of the bullet hitting the ground…

…wait, what?

"I don't have time for this," Issei said, doing his best to act as if Sellzen was the waste of human space Issei considered him and not the crazy threat he also knew he was.

And from the furious grimace on Sellzen's face, he was succeeding.

Freed used all his small self-control. He did not just want to win this, he wanted the shitty bastard to _suffer_.

"You are late, crapface. They already started."

"And were are 'they'?" Issei asked matter-of-factly.

"Right there, on the passageway under the altar," Freed answered. "Not that knowing this will do you any good, fufufu… oh, but don't worry, I'll let you in enough pieces to see her stupid dead body before I send your fucked-up sould to be with hers in hell."

"…Lovely. Thank you for the offer, but I have something important I have to do right now."

"Like hell, shitstain! The only important thing you have to do now is to die for me!"

Issei winced under the helmet. Good thing Alice was in the gauntlet, she was already insulted by Raynare saying it, _this guy_ too…

"Very well, I guess I'll have to go through you. Burroughs, activate Battle Mode!"

"Too late, you sack of shit!" Freed yelled, lunging with his sword. He was defeated before only because of the surprise. Now he had the upper hand. Now he had the certain victory! Now he had—

—a wave of force slamming into his midsection sent by a short white thing, throwing him backwards into the air.

He rolled away as soon as he touched the ground, then jumped aside to the left to avoid the icicle that grew from the ground and exploded in cold, destroying the altar.

"Ah, I see. So you got a shitty familiar now?"

Issei did not answer, just advancing in Sellzen's direction, plasma sword activated and prepared to cut his opponent in two.  
That was the one person he wouldn't regret dying right now.

Unfortunatelly, Sellzen had good enough instincts to know it was not a normal light-infused blade and jumped aside.

To the right.

Issei wasted no time in going to _his_ right – Sellzen's left.

Freed's eyes widened. The shitstain was not aiming to kill, only to get him out of the way!

Sliding himself back upright, he went to pursue, only to have to jump away from his target once more.

…Did that snow teddy bear thing just throw lightning at him? That's it, he was going to see if it had entrails or stuffings!

The shitstain was good enough to get this far, he'd probably live enough for him to kill himself.

IIIII

Raynare was worried. She knew she covered her bases, but Hyoudou was one of the few people, humans or fallen angels, that actually tried to be her friend. Even her team developed friendship through convivence.

And he was almost too late. If he arrived and the nun died while he was fighting the exorcists he couldn't claim any foul play on her part. She could claim she wanted him captured to keep him alive, even. But if he arrived and she was already dead…

She heard the sound of fighting in the front, but none in the back. She was sure the devils would plan a two-pronged assault, attacking an enemy stronghold directly through the front door would be the epitome of both bravery ans stupidity, so until the other three started fighting too the real attack didn't begin yet. But the wait was killing her!

She was so jumpy she fell backwards when the doors of the room were kicked open.

That saved her of being hit by a wave of lightning like the horde of exorcists she had "protecting" her.

There on the door stood someone, a knight in gold and dark olive.

Raynare gulped.

Asia smiled… then contorted in pain as a green light escaped her chest and went for Raynare.

"Yo-you are too late!" she claimed. "Her Sacred Gear is already extracted, and she got only a couple of minutes of life remaining."

Issei said nothing, only pointed his guns to the chains holding the blonde girl to the cross-shaped machine. A couple of shots later and he was under her, catching her before she fell on the ground.

"Is-Issei-san, is that you? Yo-you came?"

Issei removed his helmet and gave her a smile, but did not waste any time answering. Instead, he raised his gauntlet to his face.

"Burroughs, bring me Apsaras!"

The blue woman in white clothes appeared and started using her demonic healing promptly in the fallen nun.

Instantly the color returned to her face, surprising Raynare. Issei just smiled.

Most demonic magics do not follow the rules of physics, or even non-demonic magic.

They deal with concepts, because demons, for the most part, _are_ concepts. Only the most powerful ones start with a sense of individuality, it is more than just power and fame that separates a normal pixie from Titania.

There is no real demonic fire magic, there is the concept of fire, a strong heat. There is no real demonic ice magic, there is the concept of cold that freezes the air itself. Most demonic ice magics are not icicles being thrown, but the cold that creates them.

This is what makes them so deadly: because it is not physical, it cannot really be countered by the physical. But it also gives them a weakness, for the concept of cold goes against the concept of warmth from clothes, for example, weakening the cold magic. Poisonous demons don't have a chemical poison, but the very concept of poison in their powers, thus all you need is the concept of an antidote to heal from them.

This is to explain demonic healing. It is not acceleration of health, it is turning back time, it is application of the very concept of "healing". Thus, as long as it is not dead, and sometimes even then if the healing was applied soon enough, anything negative can be healed with a strong enough magic. Cuts and holes are like they were never there, because they were healed. Even damage to the soul itself can be healed, as if a demon removes a being's soul a strong enough magic may be able to put it back in place if it is not being contained.

Even something impossible to heal is healed with demonic magic, because it is not true healing, but its concept. There is no negative or positive energy in healing magic to hurt zombies with, it is pure healing concept.

In layman's terms, demonic healing magic heals you. Period, no ifs or buts.

Apsaras lacks the magic to bring back a soul gone. But Asia was not gone, only on her last breaths.

But…

"I can't fix her," said the demon woman. "She is incomplete! Her soul will keep bleeding out until we find the missing piece!"

She could not fix the blonde completely as long as her Sacred Gear was with someone else, as the Sacred Gear is part of her soul and thus to heal her it would either be recreated – a task Apsaras is far from able to do – or the healing would be incomplete and bleeding.

Issei looked on Raynare's direction, to ask what was going on, and his eyes fell on the light that escaped Asia's body earlier and that the fallen angel held on her hands.

He looked at the light, then at Raynare's face.

Raynare saw Issei's look, followed it to the Sacred Gear in her hand, and her eyes widened.

"No… you… you can't take it! This is what this was all for!"

Issei did not answer, just looked in her eyes and stepped forward.

He was too late. They had won, their mission was complete. He could not hate her, because she did what she promised, but he was still too late. She would not let him take it from her, her one fulfilled mission, her one victory, her one chance of being recognized among her peers, of being loved by her peers. He would _**not**_ take it from her!

She threw a light spear on his shoulder. He was pushed back, but the golden material was unharmed.

She threw one at each of his legs. He jumped to the side, the spears piercing the ground like a nail being pressed into a soft sponge.

Then, he pounced on her. His heavy body fell on hers, pushing her to the ground. She began flailing her arms and scratching him in desperation, while his hands were focused on trying to take the rings that represented Twilight Healing from hers. For some reason she could not understand her scratches were doing more damage than the direct hit with her light spear, but as much damage as she was doing she knew she was as defenseless as a normal human girl would be in the same situation. She was sure if he wanted to hurt her instead of just get back those rings she would be begging for his mercy already.

And that filled her head with anger. Not at him, not at his situation, but at herself. For all she claimed to be superior to humans, get close enough she can't use her spears, pin her to the ground so she can't fly away, and she is as weak as most of them.

Of course most of the time it wouldn't matter, but right here, right now, it did, and she was helpless as the human took her rare victory from her as if she was nothing more than an eyesore on the way.

While Apsaras healed the nun, now that the last piece of her had returned, Issei turned to the fallen angel, who was crying on the ground.

It seemed stupid to ask if she was alright. He just made her feel worthless and took away a bunch of work she had before, ending with her gtting nothing. He wasn't stupid, he knew she only warned him so he wouldn't be against her later, not for any real desire to help Asia instead of fulfilling her mission.

Even having no idea what to do, he approached the crying girl—

"Issei-san!"

Issei turned arounf, plasma sword clashing with the light sword held by the exorcist.

"Hello, shitstain. Ready for round 2?"

Eyes wide, Issei glanced at his gauntlet. He was so focused on taking the Sacred Gear from Raynare he didn't even notice that Jack Frost had been defeated.

"…You know what, fine. I did what I was in a hurry for, now I got some time to kill."

"And I got some _one_!" was Sellzen's reply, as he jumped back to separate their swords.

Issei drew his gun with his left hand, firing at the exorcist. But Freed evaded the shot, getting closer for a sword strike. Issei parried upwards, followed by a punch to the face with the hand holding his gun, making Freed stumble backwards.

"You hit me with a gun in the mouth!" Freed said, spitting blood. "You piece of shit!"

"Stop talking about that so much! Not everyone is as much into scat as you!"

Freed gawked, then went back to the attack with a cry of rage.

Asia was confused by this. "Raynare-san, what is scat?"

That was enough to make the fallen angel take her eyes off the sword match.

"…Please tell me this question was a regenge for almost killing you and you don't really expect me to answer."

"…Okay… but isn't lying wrong?"

"It's when someone has sexual arousal related to feces!" Issei answered from the middle of the battle. "Like him, for example."

"Oh… forget I asked then…"

"I am not!" Freed yelled back. "I may be a twisted pervert, but I'm not into _that_!"

"No one is shaming you. I'm just asking you to respect not everyone is so much into it."

"Shut up you sh—you fucker!"

"No, but seriously now, do you even know how to use a sword? Because until now it seems like you're just trying to hit me with a sharp bat while yelling like an angry howler monkey. Oh, are you a monkey? That'd explain the obsession!"

Sellzen did not answer, just swinging his blade faster and more fiercely. The surprisingly experienced Issei seemed to have no trouble avoiding his strikes though.

Raynare watched as the armored student goaded the trained exorcist into losing more and more of his skills to his anger. It was a gamble, but it seemed to be working somehow.  
She could have sworn that Hyoudou Issei had been a normal human, with no semblance of battle, three months ago. Even after that, the most training he got had been with his school's kendo team. Yet here he was battling an experienced exorcist blade by blade and avoiding his attacks like if he was an experienced samurai of old himself. And that is not counting the strange armor of his.

She looked to the side, to the completely healed nun. She couldn't help but be jealous, she barely talked to him and here he was risking his life to save hers.

Issei was bored. Sellzen wasn't half bad, but for all his craziness his fighting style was predictable, trusting more on his speed and power and less on skill and finesse. Something that, dealing with fast and powerful demons on the other Tokyo, Issei had plenty of experience with.  
Even taunting his opponent was becoming boring, Sellzen so focused on his fury he wasn't saying anything anymore, even his poorly-thought insults.

Time to finish this, he guessed.

He put his gun away in an easy-to-reach holster, freeing his left hand. And, surprising everyone, on Freed's next lunge, instead of avoiding the damage he walked _into_ the blade.

As in, deliberately and with purpose.

That stunned everyone, including Freed, giving Issei the chance to give him a palm strike to the nose.

His two hands flew to Freed's sword arm, his own sword falling into the ground deactivated, and he _yanked_. Freed flew towards him, allowing Issei to twist his body, give him a knee to the underside of the ribs, and free the light blade from Freed's grip.

Sellzen was stunned… but then started laughing. "Well, shit-for-brains, I'm disarmed, bravo. So are you, and you are wounded!"

Issei wasted no time answering, instead deactivating the blade on his side and throwing it away.

Then he said a word. Or rather, a name.

"Apsaras."

The blue-skinned woman nodded, and a light bathed her summoner.

Right in front of Freed's eyes, Issei's wound closed. Even the clothes were good as new.

"Hax! I call hax!"

"I call Energy Drain."

Issei's hands were covered in magic energy, and he lunged on top of Freed as if trying to grab him. The annoyed fake priest answered in kind, holding his opponent's hands with his own and started pushing the younger boy down.

He was succeeding, Issei's quick frame not fit for a fight of strength… but something was wrong. His body was heavier, he was getting more tired...

He could barely move by the time Issei swiped his legs from under him, the fall to the ground succeeding in knocking him out.

Standing up, a much more rested Issei bent himself backwards, snapping his back. His sword wound was nowhere to be seen. Quickly, he grabbed his dropped blade and checked Freed's unconscious body for anything else, keeping the "loot" for himself.

Raynare just shook her head. She would _not_ think about it…

He then turned to the fallen angel. "Anything else?"

She sighed. "No, I guess not. Just… give it a week before coming back, not sure how my superiors will react to what happened here. I think all bases are covered, but…"

Issei nodded, and helped Asia stand up. "See you later then, Raynare. Hopefully under better circunstances."

"Yeah, yeah." She was in a bad mood, it was clear to see. Not hard to figured out why though, since her whole force was defeated by just him.

So he just left, pulling Asia with him.

IIIII

"Issei-san, not that I'm not glad you saved my life, but have nowhere to go now," Asia finally found the courage to say.

"I know," he answered. "I'm hoping my parents will let you spend the night with us, tomorrow I'll ask my other female friends if any of them can help."

Asia smiled. His _other_ female friends… meaning, she was one of them…

IIIII

"Ok, call me crazy," Mittelt said finally, "but what if they _are_ desperate enough to just attack from the front door?"

"Then we waited for nothing, but we followed the plan," answered Dohnaseek. "The plan was not ours anyway. As far as the boss is concerned we did our job."

"Our job was to steal the Sacred Gear from the nun," countered Kalawarner. "What are we doing giving them a chance to stop it? Just because Raynare got a shine for the human boy…"

Dohnaseek sighed. "Did any of you two ever look into the eyes of the higher-ups when they are going all-out? When they lose themselves to wrath and are just barely holding themselves to sanity in their fight? Did you ever feel their berserk rage, their power?"

"You know we never did, old man," replied the blonde. "Unlike you, we were not born at the time of the wars."

"Then trust me in this. That ghost has power and rage, and the only thing stopping her from killing anyone she fancies to is that human boy wishing her not to. If we get on his bad side, it is not _he_ we must face, but _her_. And I don't fancy my chances."

The two female fallen gulped. As much as they liked to pretend otherwise, that little girl _scared_ them, as adorable as she was.

Better wait until Raynare called them back inside.

IIIII

 **I am not happy with this chapter, but I think you guys must have waited enough. My main points of dislike are the part with Asia and the fight scene with Freed, that I rewrote about three times.**

 **Issei only fightning Freed and Raynare was not an intentional cop-out. I thought the other three just waiting in the back entrance for someone to attack while everything happened through the front one would be funny. Only later I noticed it seemed like I was just avoiding adding them to the fight.**

 **As warned, Issei got a few magics from his demons. He learned Bufula, Maragi, Mazio and Mazan from Jack Frost, Media from Apsaras, and Energy Drain from Alice.**

 **Why only these six? Because he is too weak to learn anything else from Alice right now, and the others don't have much more they can teach.**

 **The whole "concept and healing magic" may seem like a way to justify rpg mechanics, but it is actually just an extrapolation of the SMT concept of Observation. Basically, demons, and the magic they use, are the embodiments of concepts humans needed a way to explain, thus how they were created and the original source of their different powers. A yuki-onna embodies the very concept of death in the cold, thus she gets cold powers, for example.**

 **And before anyone says it is an asspull… I found nothing in DxD claiming Asia could only get her Sacred Gear back by being reincarnated as far as I recall, she was just dead already in canon. And even if she died Issei had Alice on call to Samarecarm her back. So if it makes you feel better Apsaras only kept her alive until Issei could give it back to her.**

 **Speaking of Alice, no one said anything, but yes, I know she is OP right now despite not being used in the fight. Trust me, with my plans this will bite them all back…**

 **Next time is the Phenex arc. I won't lie, Issei will get involved, something I know some people dislike because I already had people complaining that if he helps her I'd be following canon too much and am being unoriginal. But meh, this is fanfiction anyway. I'll add my own spin on things, but I reserve myself the right to follow some canon too as long as I change it enough to justify it.  
Besides, the only ideas I got to not leave a bad taste in my mouth by just letting her be forced in a loveless marriage involved Riser turning into a decent person out of nowhere.**


	5. Familiar Summoning App

**Sorry for the wait, personal life got in the way.**

 **Well, I got a review that… I kinda have to comment.**

 **This story, as already mentioned, was inspired by another. I think the reviewer went a little too hard on the other story, but I can see some of his point.**

 **The thing this, this other story, besides the author still be starting to learn, something that I learned to filter so didn't bother me so much, is… clearly a power fantasy. Not that this one isn't a bit, but in that one Issei is clearly overpowered, with access to every power and demon and demolishing everyone he faces. Also, up until now there seems to have no drawback, for Issei or the world.  
That… is not exactly a basis for a good Megaten story, as mentioned in the review. A story involving Megaten has the characters becoming strong, yes, but that is because there is a constant struggle, until the end where he fights either someone on par of or even God himself. He goes through hell, many times literally, but perseveres through it all.**

 **Not that my story went through it much… yet, but the groundwork is here.  
Issei is not much stronger than the average person yet, but he got training, experience and equipment to help (that needs to be used sparingly else people will figure out their weakness)… the thing is, that is serving him well until now, but the reason he got that is because, and he is aware, the other shoe will drop sooner or later. And he got no way to get the resources to try to lower the damage until then. Sure, he got some help from Stephen, but…  
He is basically the main character of a Devil Survivor game right now, and all he can do is recruit other people to his party for now.  
Of course, there is Alice in the party, but both Issei is trying to keep her non-murderous, meaning avoiding putting her in battle and instead just treating her like a little sister, and if something **_**does**_ **end up endangering her he got** _ **two**_ **high-level demons to hunt him down.**

 **So yeah, I'm hoping to keep this interesting by giving Issei limits to fight through with strategy, and giving a deeper plot divergence eventually than just a new flavor of "Issei got OP". I have no idea if I am doing fine, but I sure hope so.**

 **So, about this chapter.**

 **So, in the Light Novel there is a month between the beginnings of books 1 and 2, or if you prefer between the death of Issei arc and the Phenex Arc. In my story, the first week is not even over. Thus this interlude chapter.**

 **But just because it is an interlude, doesn't mean there isn't some important things here and there.**

 **Having to get a name for the Hyoudou parentes, since they lack one as far as I know, I chose Ryoji and Kotone. Why? Because, despite knowing Megaten since I once played Persona2EP, it was Persona3 that I was first able to play properly due to my copy of P2EP being bad. I played it even before being murdered by Matad… I mean playing Nocturne. (Ryoji needs no introductions, but Kotone is one of the "official" names of "Minako". There is no deeper meaning to this, by the way, they were just the first male and female characters that popped in my head)**

 **Mikazuki Miroku was the first name that popped in my head that would fit the nickname.**

 **Same with Murayama Saori and Katase Kaede.**

IIIII

"Hope you don't mind sharing a room with Alice-chan, Asia-chan," said Hyoudou Ryoji, Issei's father. "We have an extra room, but she doesn't like sleeping alone. Usually she alternates between our room and Issei's, but we don't want it to become a habit."

"Oh, I don't mind, I'm used to sharing quarters. I'm really glad you are letting me live with you."

"Oh, it is no problem. We always wanted a daughter. And as much as we tried making Alice take that place she acts more like Issei's…"

"And to think I'm already a grandmother at such a young age…" Hyoudou Kotone, Issei's mother, lamented from the kitchen where she and her son prepared them dinner.

"Well mom, at least you are young enough you'll spend a _long_ time with her."

Asia couldn't help but smile at the scene of miss Hyoudou chasing Issei brandishing a wooden spoon as a weapon while his father made some call to the school both to enter her and to get her some teachers in the Japanese language, since without the help of Issei's gauntlet her Japanese was still on the lower level.

"That small thing is a wonder, isn't it?" Ryoji said beside her, making her jump a bit and only then notice she was staring at Issei's gauntlet.

"Y-yes. I mean…"

"Don't worry, Burroughs called us and explained everything."

"Burroughs?" Asia repeated, confused. "Isn't she…"

"From what Issei told us, she _is_ just an A.I., but the man that made her made her in the image of someone's mind. So she is like a mental twin sister of that person, even if all she remembers is from after Issei turned her on. All in a space smaller than a smartphone and as durable as a titanium alloy. If it wasn't mystical or whatever you call it, she could revolutionize the technology of the world."

That had been another thing that surprised Asia, how Issei was open to his parents about the supernatural.

"You talk about it as if it was normal… I was told that this kind of thing is supposed to be kept secret…"

Kotone just laughed as she and Issei brought the food. "Hard to hide it from us when he changes his personality so much out of nowhere."

"Changed his personality?"

"Yes, Ise-kun met… someone once and most of his personality got pushed under… an obsession with the female form, particularly the breasts."

"It wasn't an obsession, mom" Issei protested. "It was just as much admiration as they deserve."

"Sometimes it still shows up," she continued, ignoring her son, "but he learned some self-control when it does at least."

"The female form is… a work of art. I'm particularly found of the breasts, but I love all component parts. But I must admit I was a bit… over-focused on it before everything happened."

His father snorted. "More like unhealthily focused. We were afraid we would never be able to have grandchildren one day."

Issei just shrugged. Even he had to admit he was pretty bad.

"You said Issei-san changed for no clear reason?" Asia said, her curiosity taking hold.

"I already told you to call me Ise, Asia," Issei chided her.

"Sorry…"

"But yeah, as far as they knew I had left the house the old Issei and came back a new one."

"It took us a bit of effort to convince him to tell us, since he thought we'd think him crazy, but…" Ryoji stopped, thinking of how to put it into words.

"In the end, despite the perversion my son was still the same kind child under it. That was what caused it all," Kotone took over.

"Mom…"

With a sigh, he started explaining. "It started a lot like what happened to you, someone needed my help and I went to do it. The difference is that who you helped was _just_ a devil, while…"

IIIII

Asia couldn't sleep, even though Alice had been nice enough to let herself be used as a plushie.

The things Issei said… about the alternate world's angels and God… They did not match the teachings of the church.

But again, that was a world where Christ never existed. Where God kept His mindset from before then, when he was much more vengeful. Maybe…

No, no, it still didn't fit. Something was missing, something else that changed that God. The difference was too much, even taking in consideration the time spent after Christ wasn't born and His behavior changed.

Issei had said that the connection between worlds was still mostly closed… she hoped it would stay closed for as long as possible.

IIIII

Issei was still awake, but for another, much happier reason.

He wasn't overconfident, but he knew he would be able to take care of himself for a while before summoning someone to help him if needed. But Asia had no training, and she was a healer, not a fighter. He'd try his best to better her conditioning and her evasion, but she was still endangered by herself.

He wasn't foolish enough to not think _someone_ would try to get her a second time just because it failed once. And next time it won't be someone he is on neutral terms with.

That was when he found out Burroughs herself thought the same and took care of it, contacting her creator. The e-mail was cryptic, but as relieving as it was worrying.

 _Demon Summoning APK_

 _Hello, my young friend. Burroughs informed me of your predicament.  
This is an adaption of the Devil Summoning Program I've been working on with another programmer. Naoya developed his version for a special game device from his land, and together we made a joint version for smartphones that is compatible with Burroughs.  
It is, unlike yours, a client, so until the connection between worlds is open and it can connect to the server your gauntlet will have to work as one, so I advise you to refrain from sharing it with many people for now.  
It got an one-use demon summoning, where the demon most compatible with the user is called, however the demon is not obligated to obey the user unless defeated in battle (the user can have assistance, so do not worry). To facilitate this, it also got a Harmonizer function, which creates a field that tunes the mental wavelengths of humans with the ones of demons, basically making human more resistant to demonic damages while making attacks from humans more effective. It, however only works due to being human beings, meaning the effect on weapons is greatly diminished.  
It also has a team function, where demons of team members can be shared. Many functions are exclusive to the team leader, however.  
More options, like the Skill Crack (its equivalent of Demon Whispers), will only be available when the server is reachable. Without access, the app can only hold one spell, although they can be exchangeable among team members and, in your case, the space available in Burroughs.  
We hope it will be useful for you._

 _Stephen_

It was relieving because this was exactly what he needed to protect Asia. Maybe he could invite his other friends too…  
Well, Katase and Murayama. Matsuda and Motohana have been distancing themselves from him lately due to spending so much time with females and less just talking about them from afar with the two. It was a shame, he really cares for the two, they were his friends at a time he had no one else and he knew that deep inside they were good people if they could get past their perversion and jealously.  
Also, you know, they had no knowledge of the supernatural. He'd rather they stay that way until needed.

And it was worrying because the email held yet another allusion to the day the worlds will be connected…  
He hoped he was wrong, but he doubted it would be a happy reunion.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed his old smartphone and installed the apk of the app. Better not to worry so much about this until it becomes relevant.

IIIII

"I'll talk with Katase as soon as we are done talking here," Murayama assured Issei. "No need to thank me, I'm glad we get to help her and keep her away from… those two."

"Hehe… he…" Issei coud _feel_ the anime sweat on the back of his head. Not that Issei couldn't understand her anger, he was sure they'd either complain about him living with Asia or ask him to give them tips, probably both.

"Are you sure you don't mind postponing our date to next week?"

"Oh no, I don't mind at all," she said on her phone with a clearly nervous tone of voice. Issei would be worried she was feeling forced to go, but trading the date of the date was her idea, she could have just said she wouldn't mind giving it up for helping Asia buy new things if she _really_ didn't want to go.

He thought. Girls were complicated.

He was talking with her through Burroughs (it always surprised him how Burroughs' Augmented Reality worked, with no phones, mic or screen… he used a Bluetooth phone, but just for appearances' sake) while he and Asia walked to school, his father already there to make the arrangements to enroll her. She would still take some days to officially join, probably, but he was already trying to push her to sit around his kendo friends so she wouldn't be alone when she did.

IIIII

Rias was rubbing her face. Sona Shitori was by her side, amusement on her face.

Himejima had a vindicated smile. Not happy, just a "now it is your turn" smile.

"I don't see the problem. Just ask her not to pray while here," Issei said.

"She… is a member of the church," Rias pointed out.

" _Was_ a member of the church. They kicked her out."

"The administration agrees, and approved the idea," Sona said. "The Occult Research Club is now officially an actual club instead of your personal one, and is to be populated with as many supernatural-aware school members known not also members of the Student Council. As such, Murayama and Katase are to be invited to join, as will Argento as soon as her entrance is approved."

Rias sighed, and Issei coud swear he heard her say "damn it, dad".

To be honest, she was kinda glad there would be more members. She loved her peerage members, but they were like her siblings already.

But a nun… even if an ex-one…

She looked deeply in Issei's eyes, and said as seriously as she could muster: "You owe me one."

"…Ok," he shrugged.

Rias' eyes shined with mischief. "And I know exactly how you will pay for it."

IIIII

"So, you were not being _controlled_ by a devil. _All of you but Issei_ —"

"And now us," Katase interrupted Murayama.

"Are bonafide devils yourselves."

Rias just nodded, being in front of the group and trying to find the address from memory.

"Seriously, just tell me the address and I can use my GPS to get us there," Issei said.

"I never bothered," was the answer he got.

"We don't usually bother with addresses, because we move there with magic circles," Himejima explained, somehow in a much better mood regarding Issei.

"The most important thing right now is, we are devils, so we only know devil magic. But the client is a human that wishes to use magic," Rias explained.

"I don't know many magics myself…"

"Just tell the client all you can. You are the one more knowledgeable I have available."

Issei sighed. He hoped he could help whoever it wa—

The door opened, revealing the client.

It was Drogo from Game of Thrones. Or someone just as muscled.

Wearing a gothic Lolita dress.

Issei was aware that someone just took a picture of him, but he couldn't be bothered to care right then.

Issei himself resists the urge to summon the camera Nozomi gave Flynn and takes a pic of the person.

"Where can I get a dress like yours?"

Seriously, Issei was not aware it was _possible_ to make a dress with resistance to all basic magics without any weaknesses. Unless…

"I made it myself," the person said, pride in his voice.

"Oh…"

Sensing the disappointment in Issei's voice, the man continued: "but I wouldn't mind making one for you if you want."

Issei nodded. He doubted the protections would be the same since the person's dress was apparently tailor-made for this even if the person wasn't aware, but he appreciated the offer nonetheless.

The wonders – and tribulations – of being aware of how magic _really_ works…

He went to follow the man inside… only to notice he wasn't being followed.

He turned around, and noticed that the girls were looking at him with wide eyes… and Katase and Himejima were blushing.

He wasted no time and took a picture of the scene.

IIIII

"I see…" Issei said, deep in thought. Apparently Miroku, or as he liked to be called Mil-Tan, wanted to become a magical girl.

"Yes, but I could not find anyone that could give Mil-tan magical powers."

"I see… Well, Mil-tan, I myself never met another human magician myself, and the circumstances that let me get magical powers are… hard to come by. I'm pretty sure we could find them if we researched more, but until then…"

Miroku—Mil-tan, Issei corrected in his head, seemed pretty disappointed, but Isei reached a decision. Mil-tan seemed to be a pure soul with just the desire to help. So, better to give them the means to protect themselves in case they found something their impressive muscles and magical clothes could not deal with.

"Until then I have an idea that you could, or could not like. It is not exactly giving you magical powers, but giving you a familiar spirit that can lend you some help."

Everyone but Mil-tan, who was ecstatic, was surprised by that.

"I was going to make the offer to Murayama, Katase and Asia-chan tomorrow, if you want you can meet us in the park around sundown. I'll keep looking for other human magicians, so if I find them we both win. But until then it'll be at least some help."

Next thing Issei knew he was being lifted from the ground and compressed painfully. It took him some time to get rid of the panic and understand that it was just Mil-tan hugging him.

"Thank you thank you thank you. It has been my dream for years! I even tried finding a way to get to another world—"

"Please don't," Issei said quickly. Mil-tan lowered him, looking at him confused. "Unless the person who sends you there _really_ knows what they are doing, you're risking opening the gates without a way to close them back properly. And that… could be bad."

Everyone but Asia, whom he already told part of the story of both Stephen and the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, looked at him curiously.

He ignored them for now. He knew the humans present would understand if he told them about his story, Asia did at least, but Rias, and any other supernatural, would probably want to meet their counterpart. And Issei did _not_ want to risk dealing with someone who thought they knew better than him on this.

IIIII

Arrangements made, and Issei discreetly measured in another room while the girls talked, they left a hopeful Mil-tan and went on their way home.

"Thank you Issei. Now, before you say anything, we devils get a payment for services rendered, more important in its meaning than in its actual value. The value agreed to arrange a meeting between you two was a shirt Mil-tan made just for me," she explained, lifting a pretty well-made shirt.

Issei nodded. It didn't seem like Rias had a need for literal money, after all.

"But you are not a devil, so what would you like as payment?"

"Don't worry about it," he answered. "Even not counting the clothes I'll get myself, Mil-tan seems like a good person, so it is no big deal. Also, for each of them that accepts the deal tomorrow I'll profit too."

"Ara, how so?" asked Himejima. For some reason the presence of Asia with them made the anger she felt for him seem lower.

It was weird because, even though Asia was excommunicated, he was friends with people related to _both_ their enemies… was it something about the fallen angels that made being friends with them worse for her?

"Because they'll be their personal familiars, but my gauntlet will be linked to them due to the method I'll use. Meaning I'll be able to summon them just as well if I need them in an emergency. But I kinda need someone else to be able to make the summon, since I will be the source of the magic."

They kept walking for a bit, until Murayama couldn't hold back a laugh. "I'm surprised you actually sound like you'll wear that dress, though."

"Oh, I probably will sooner or later."

"Wait, what?"

The girls stopped, looking at him wide-eyed.

Issei turned to them, confused.

"Uhm… I can understand the humans, but didn't you devils notice either?"

"Notice what?" asked Rias, confused.

"The magic in that dress. I don't think it was added on purpose, or at least not consciously, but Mil-tan's clothes seem to have some magic protection. That dress Mil-tan was wearing had protection against most offensive magic I know of, and your shirt protects you a bit from light magic. Far from as much as the natural protection for being a human, but still a help."

Rias's eyes widened as she held the fabric in her hands. It was faint, but noticeable now that she knew it was there. "How did you know? I'd never figure it out!"

Issei shrugged. "Experience, I guess. The clothes I'm wearing, for example, are a magical set that looked like a Tokyo school's uniform my mom sewed on some normal fabric over to make it fit with Kuoh's.

"And what does it do?" Katase asked, being the only one forward enough (at least among the close friends) to hold a bit of the jacket and rub it to see that yes, it _was_ a piece of fabric sewed over other clothes to look like Kuoh's. "And doesn't having so much fabric make it too warm?"

"Protection against dark magic," Issei said. "And you'd think so, but it doesn't. The armor by itself is kinda cool, so…"

Well, more like it was more of a liability against cold than help, and he doubted the normal fabric over it helped much. But as long as he didn't piss off an ice wielder then he would be fine.

IIIII

Sona Sitri, known in her school as Shitori Sona, was confused.

What was Hyoudou's game?

For years he seemed to have no supernatural knowledge. Then he suddenly is a member of the occult club because he _just happened_ to gain an interest in the area around the time he was approached by a fallen. Then the fallen leave after he makes it clear he considers them allies, if not neutral, only for him to enroll in school an excommunicated nun – excommunicated by helping a devil according to her research.

Then that magic explanation. She wasn't fooled by his "magnets" line, or rather, she knew pretty much its possible, and most likely true, meaning of using magnetic energy to fuel magic. His line was clearly made to seem like he had enough knowledge to go by but not in-depth, but wherever he learned seemed to not warn him that the magnetic energy was an advanced knowledge.

And now, according to Rias, he helped her with Mil-tan for nothing but the ability to use the future familiar for himself if needed, plus every time he was wearing the school uniform he was actually wearing protection against their magic.

It was as if Hyoudou was preparing himself for _something_.

She did not know what, but she would _not_ let whatever it was harm anyone.

IIIII

"I can't believe it. I thought that after all this time he would be better," Murayama complained, her face red.

"He _is_ better, he didn't peep as far as we know. It is good to know he still appreciates us, though," Katase said. "Besides, you're blushing."

"Of embarrassment!"

Asia said nothing, but she was blushing a bit herself.

Issei, some paper tissues stuffed into his bleeding nose, followed the three girls, carrying the clothes of the group. He was in high heavens, being able to see them in so many cute outfits. The silly smile wouldn't leave his face.

He also bought some clothes for himself, though. Mainly a civilian outfit that resembled Flynn's prentice samurai uniform, consisting of white shirt and light tan pants (for ease of cleaning) and a blue jacket.

But the shopping was finally done, and it was time to meet Mil-tan at the park.

…

"You know, we forgot to agree on _where_ in the park to meet Mil-tan…"

The three girls just looked at him and blinked.

"True," said Murayama, "but I think it'd be hard to not notice someone like Mil-tan."

Issei sighed. They had a point.

"I'll go buy some ice-cream for Alice. Anyone else wants some?"

The two kendokas did not, but Asia did. So Issei, and a newly-materialized Alice, went to get some ice-cream for the three.

"Two chocolate and one—"

"I want chocolate chip this time!"

"Oh, ok. Sorry, one chocolate and two chocolate chip, please."

"One strawberry for me, please," said a deep voice at Issei's side. One he recognized, but not the person.

He looked at the person. A big build and wearing a black suit, with a tag on his shoulder identifying him as "Mikazuki Miroku, Head of Security". Drew some attention, but he still wouldn't have linked him and Mil-tan if not for the voice.

"Ah, Mi-Mikazuki-san! Good to meet you here, we forgot to set a meeting place with you."

"Oh, Hyoudou-san! I was about to walk around the park looking for you. And who is this young lady?"

"I am Alice," the ghostly girl replied with a curtsy. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you too, my lady."

The three returned to the others, Issei giving Asia her chocolate ice-cream.

"Let's look for somewhere we will be away from the people. I'd like to avoid drawing attention."

Ironically, the place they chose was the one Issei had been attacked at during his date with Raynare.

"Alice, could you please open a territory so people won't see us?"

She nodded, and skipped a bit far from them. Clapping her hands, the five humans were now in an area that seemed to be under an orange filter.

"Now no one can enter here without Alice's permission, or overpowering her. Anyone looking here won't see us anymore."

Two hiding groups got confused when they disappeared, but were more annoyed and curious than anything. The third one, however, got their leader livid.

But no one inside was aware of them, as far as they knew that was just a common precaution.

"Now, before we begin, I need to tell you all about Demons. Pay attention, especially you Mil-tan."

The suited man nodded, and grabbed a notepad from somewhere.

"Demons are _not_ always a force of evil, unlike believed nowadays. They are actually, as from the greek original word _daemon_ , any supernatural being. That means that, if you meet The Devil, he would be a demon, but so would an angel. For making a deeper distinction, they are divided in clans, which go from the Vile to the Heralds and even the Deities."

"Does that mean demons are basically neutral in the good and evil scale, like humans?" Mil-tan asked, confused.

"As a whole, they are. But the most benign ones are not commonly found, or at least they don't announce themselves, so the ones you are most likely to find are… not so comfortable with humanity. Unless someone made a contract with them.

Which brings us to why we are here."

Mil-tan's eyebrows raised in surprise. Wasn't the only one, but was the first to say something. "We are going to make a contract with a demon?"

"Yes. I am aware most people wouldn't see it as a good thing, but that is why I explained to you first how demon does not necessarily mean evil."

"It is just… hard to let it sink. After all, I, I mean Mil-tan believed so for so long…"

"Wait, what?" Murayama asked, surprised. "Since when? Why didn't you tell us?"

Issei just smiled at them. "I wanted it to be a surprise."

He then turned serious. "I had some trouble saving Asia, and her healing powers are pretty powerful so I doubt no one else will be trying to get them, or her, again in the future. So I wanted to get a way to keep her protected. So Burroughs contacted her creator, who sent me a weaker but still useable way to summon demons… semi-safely."

"Semi-safely?" Katase asked, not impressed.

"Burroughs?" Mil-tan asked too.

"Burroughs is an A.I. I have in my gauntlet," he said, raising the sleeve on his left arm and showing he wasn't just wearing a glove on that hand. "It is as smart as a human, actually more than quite a few, and the gauntlet itself works as both a phone and a tool for demon hunting and contracting.

This is also the reason I say 'semi-safely'. The usual way to contract with a demon, you find one somewhere and _try_ to negotiate. Some are not open to it, and some are outright aggressive. And others will _become_ aggressive if the negotiations go south, or run away with the payment. But, when the contract is made, it is _made_. They are very loyal to it.  
This method, however, summons the demon perfect for you, and the contract is set… as long as you can prove yourself strong enough."

"Prove myself strong enough?" Murayama asked, feeling a bit apprehensive… and insulted, to be honest.

"Yup. I'm… not really sure how it works with my usual method, Burroughs calculates my body's 'level' and the demon's, whatever those mean, I think it is raw magical capacity or something, and they have to be at least the same or I can't contract with them. The demons themselves can tell without any help.  
But this method we are using is a bit more… forgiving."

"How so?" she asked, calming down. So he wasn't insulting her. She… wasn't sure why she was on the defensive like that.

"Now, you only need to defeat them in battle," he answered, proud of this.

Murayama nodded, satisfied by the answer… until she got a slap to the back of the head by Katase.

"Why are you two so happy with this? I mean, yes, we of the kendo club are going to have an easier time, and Mil-tan probably got a gun or something, working with security, but what about Asia? Also, we didn't bring our swords!"

"I wasn't done, Katase-san," Issei tried to calm her down. The girl crossed her arms, looking at him seriously as if telling him that it better be good.

"There are two important details in that battle. One is that this summoning method also gives an area where human bodies are boosted, making them more resistance and making hand-to-hand combat do more damage to any demons in the area. Weapons are too, but less. So, I can lend you some weapons I have with me, but if you want you can always just punch them. Depending on the weapon it can work even better.  
The other detail, and a big one in this case, is that… you don't need to fight them alone. As long as they are defeated in battle and you are active on the opposite side, they are yours from then on. Of course, there is a downside. If the summoner dies before it is defeated the demon is free to do whatever it wants, including summon other demons if it is able to."

"So the plan is to summon the demons one by one and defeat it as a group?" Katase asked.

"Pretty much if it is what you want. I'd be happier if we did it for at least Asia, but if you want to try your luck fighting them by yourselves we can always only jump in if you are losing."

Murayama and Mil-tan nodded firmly as if confirming that was what they wanted. Issei could swear if life was an anime there would be a big drop of sweat on the back of Katase's head.

"Well, about the ritual," Issei continued, "it was converted into a phone app." Saying this he took his old phone. "Of course, it needs more than what most phones can do, so it was made in a way that it can use Burroughs as a server. In other words, if you agree to this your ability to control your demons will, at least for now, be limited to what I can support. I can support seven more people with Burroughs, and the total of demons for everyone can't go past 24 right now, minus one for each extra team member since it should take about as much of memory per each of you as to keep one demon on hold.  
Also, I will, for all purposes, be the 'team leader' as far as the app in concerned. I… have no idea what that means, since this will be my first time using this version of it.  
What I do know is that team members can share their demons if they are not summoned already."

Issei thought a bit more. "There is something I'm forgetting…"

"Mil-tan asked you to be able to use magic, Master," answered Burroughs.

"Ah right, magic. Each of your phones can hold one magic from the demons you summon, and we can trade them between team members. When the full server is available you'll be able to learn some from opponent demons by defeating them, and they'll be saved in the server, but until then we can only use the magic we have on hand."

"I see…" said Mil-tan, "and are there any drawbacks, as long as we win? Besides needing to share our powers, since we are all using you as our stand-in server?"

"Ethical or religious," Issei answered. "We are dealing with beings from various religions, some considered evil, and they are our indenture servants, just not outright slaves because they'll be feeding in our energy and not needing to worry about fighting for survival with other demons."

"Do they have a choice to not come when contracted?"

"Yes. The contract is binding, but us activating it and they coming is considered agreement. We can be caught unaware, but not them."

"We can?" Murayama asked, surprised. "But aren't you the only one able to use them?"

"You mentioned a server. Are these going to become widespread? Aren't they too dangerous in the wrong hands?"

Issei sighed. "Well… girls, I'd like to say that I trust you. I don't know Mil-tan for long, but you seem trustworthy too. So what I'm going to tell you… it must be kept secret, and not spread unless we all _agree_ to it. Outside myself, the only humans that know are Asia and my parents."

The other three nodded.

And so Issei told of his story. Of how there were many worlds, linked, and not all of them ended up the best way. How his soul was linked to a warrior in one such world, and that was how he met Alice.

"I'm not sure, but from how quick I got this app it was already used in another world… and doubt it was controlled properly. But that is not the most important part."

"The server," Murayama said. "It'll only be available when whatever is protecting us falls. And since you already met someone that went through the cracks, and was still powerful enough to take you for a time to the other side…"

"It probably won't stay there for long," Issei agreed.

"So that is what you meant," Mil-tan said. "If someone that doesn't know the passages properly opens up one to a bad universe… But why not explain to the devils?"

"Doubt they'd believe me," he answered. "The strongest ones probably have not only the power, but the magical and scientific knowledge to create their own version of the Yamato Perpetual Generator. And people with power and knowledge rarely hear from others with less claiming they know better."

"But… but that would prevent them from opening a passage without knowing how bad it could go," Katase pointed out. "I mean, if it will be opened eventually anyway…"

"That'd need them to take me seriously first," Issei reminded her. "I'm trying my best to get close to Flynn's skills by joining both the kendo and occult clubs, but unless I can really get their ear they'll probably just see me as a curiosity but still think they know better."

"And… how will you do that?" she asked.

"I… I'm working on it. I just need to find out more about them, find out a problem I can help them with. Will take some time though."

"We may not have 'some time'!"

"I know!" he shout back, annoyed. "But I'm banging my head every day trying to think of a better option, a faster way to get their confidence so they'll _trust me when I say it may be a bad idea_. But all I've done seems to have made things worse… The only demons I know ate the Occult Research Club and the School Committee, and every time it seems I took a step forward I apparently take two back too!"

Seeing the nervous Issei pacing showed the other four what was really going on. He was doing a masterful job, but things were really weighting on his mind.

"Well, you got us now," Murayama said, putting a hand on his shoulder, surprising Katase.

Looking around, Issei couldn't help but smile seeing the determined face of his new companions. His new team.

He took a deep breath.

"Ok, so I'm thinking we should begin with Asia, followed by Katase. Asia is the only one with any healing abilities here, so we should get her free to heal us after you're the other fights. Hopefully we'll get someone else to share the burden, but if not we can always regroup later.  
She is also the one who is in the most danger. She her healing magic is a powerful asset to anyone who gets their hands on her, so we need to get her some protection as soon as possible."

No one had anything to say about it, so they spread themselves around the ex-nun as she activated the app on Issei's old phone.

A light shone, and when their eyes adjusted the magic circle in the ground was already disappearing. Not that many of them noticed, since their attention was caught by the being that appeared with it.

Blond hair flowing in the wind. A body that belonged to a model. Beautiful teal-colored wings. A blindfold of the same color, with an eye symbol. And a quite risqué bikini protecting only her most important parts, the lower half so small that in some angles you'd be forgiven thinking she wasn't wearing them.

"Fear not," the being said.

Tears appeared in Asia's eyes, for she needed nothing else to recognize the being. Even knowing how corrupt the other worlds could become, she held no doubt that this teal-winged being was an Angel.

"I have come to willingly protect this young woman. I know of the conditions of the contract, but I accept it as-is now that I met you. From now on, I am a willing servant of Asia Argento."

The angel bowed her head, and Asia replied with a curtsy as it disappeared. The next second, the data of the angel appeared on Asia's phone, and on Issei's gauntlet.

Issei… was disappointed. Angels… were not the strongest, and they did not have any offensive magic. Sure, a healer fit Asia, but…

"Master," said Burroughs, "There is something different with this angel's abilities."

Noticing the AI's tone, he checked her abilities… and was surprised. She was _much_ more powerful than the angels he met. While it had the basic healing magic Dia, it lacked the cleansing Patra, but instead… Hama*?

"It behaves differently than the usual Hama you encountered. While the usual Hama would fall those not resistant to Light Magic, it was otherwise harmless." Issei resisted the urge to roll his eyes, it was an one-hit knockout for any demons without such resistances after all… if it stuck. "However, this one rarely does so… but instead it functions like an actual damaging magic. Like a light-elemental Agi."

Issei blinked. Then blinked again.

"Wow… that's exactly what we needed. That's… I can't help but think it is not good."

"The heavier the shoe with us, the heavier the other one will be when it falls."

"I'm not sure that's how it works, Burroughs, but… yeah, I get you."

Next one was Katase's… And this one, in contrast, was an ebony beauty, holding in her head what seemed to be a barbecue grill… with an out of control fire.  
Of course, her hands were on fire too.

"Uh, Pele. An Hawaiian volcano goddess. Has fire magic. Can I do the honors?" Issei asked.

Katase nodded, and the Pele sighed. "I give up." The next second, she was disappearing to enter Katase's phone.

"Oh look, besides fire magic she also got Posumundi, a magic to help deal with poisons and sickness."

Issei gave her a quick look, but differently from the Angel it did not seem much different from the ones he met.

With a quick discussion, it was decided that next one would be Murayama. Issei quickly handed her his first blade from when joining the samurais of Mikado.

Her demon was a Nadja. A fairy that looks like a young girl with brown skin and green eyes, wearing white clothes and a bone necklace… and apparently that is all Issei could tell, because none of the Nadjas he met could use Zan, the force magic, without being fused with someone to get it.

Murayama however showed that that was the perfect element for a demon linked to her, as she moved elegantly, almost danced, between the force typhoons as she got closer.

She took less than half a minute to reach the small fairy, her sword cutting its head off… at the same time a stone thrown by the wind cut her back.

Then, the girl started vomiting.

"Saori!" Katase screamed, but her friend raised a hand to tell she was fine while taking deep breaths. Asia soon approached and used her Sacred Gear, and the wound soon disappeared.

"I'm fine, Kaede, don't worry. But…" she said, looking as the small corpse disappeared.

"Oh boy, she will be pissed when she recovers…" Issei said, looking at the phone. So, instead of a magic to make enemies panic, she had force magic… she also got resistance to force instead of to light, and a weakness to ice…

"Recover?" Murayama asked, surprised. "I cut her head off!"

"She is a demon, remember? _And_ she made a contract with you. As long as you live, she is safe as long as she has time to recover. But her neck will probably be killing her tomorrow."

The girl grimaced, but smiled. At least she didn't _really_ kill someone. That… would be _**bad**_.

Also would make this summon thing kinda useless, but she wasn't thinking about that right then.

Meanwhile, Issei was thinking. Both girls, while having different demons, had demons with the same weakness, to cold. Asia's was weak to electricity.

Asia's compatibility with her demon was clear, and the quick Murayama's with the force-user fae was clear too. Katase also held a much more… "spicy" personality than he expected from their previous interactions.

But what would be Mil-tan's demon? He hoped it'd be one that fit him like in the oposites way, because a physical demon wouldn't be as useful for the already strong "defender of justice".

Well, hope for the best, prepare for the worst, the others had their demons ready for whatever it was the suit-clad Mil-tan summoned.

…

Quick. That was all Issei could think as the blue Gremlin moved around, Mil-tan's punches missing it by an inch. The security expert was no slouch either though, avoiding the being's small ice attacks.

And it was official, since Gremlins were supposed to have the area-wide Mabufu instead of the single target Bufu ice spell, that the App was drawing demons from a different world than the ones Issei had been to. Meaning his summons, and future opponents, could have different skills, strengths and weaknesses.

Issei was about to offer some help, when Mil-tan showed the experience got in the security training. As the gremlin went past a punch, the opposite arm and leg met, catching the being in the middle.

"I give up! I give up! Don't hurt me!" the gremlin screamed.

Mil-tan didn't let go.

With a sigh, the gremlin nodded. "Guess you're too smart to fall for that…"

And thus it disappeared, and yet another member joined the group.

Issei quickly looked at the gremlin's information. Yes, it was definitely different. Bufu instead of Mabufu, and while keeping the resistance to electricity that the one he knew had – fitting for something famed for messing with electronics – and the weaknesses to fire and force, it also got a resistance to cold.  
It was also slightly weaker.

It was a bit harder to see the connection between Mil-tan and the gremlin, though. Was it because the gremlin and Mil-tan messed with the current society? Or was it just that the gremlin was the closest match at Mil-tan's current power level?

Regardless, they were done.

Time to share their spells.

"Hmm… I think Mil-tan should keep the Dia," Murayama said. "I mean, we will most likely be together, but Mil-tan can't just walk around with people our age all the time without drawing attention, so having the Gremlin for any magical fighting and the healing magic for any emergency should work for now."

Mil-tan nodded.

"I'd personally like the Hama," Issei said. "I'm more of a spellcaster than a physical fighter—"

"Could have fooled us," Katase couldn't help snarking.

"—and light element is one of the less resisted ones. Most humans wouldn't be harmed, but even fallen are not immune."

In actually, he also had already stronger versions of the other elements from when going to rescue Asia, so…

"I'd like the Bufu," Asia said. "I mean, this was all so I could protect myself, but the other spells I saw seemed a bit… aggressive. Ice magic seemed more defensive."

Issei smiled a bit. She was right, fire and force were mainly damaging spells. Ice _was_ very versatile, even if it'd need some creativity and control to use it like she wanted it wasn't impossible.

With a quick talk, Murayama and Katase decided to have the magic the other's familiar did not.

"Exchanges completed," Burroughs announced as soon as they finished.

Issei nodded.

"Now, I'd like us to train with our new magics a bit… but…" looking to the sky, despite the orange barrier it was clear it was getting dark.

"When do you kids leave school during the week?" Mil-tan asked, putting the phone in a pocket of the suit. "My work is a late one, so we can train for around an hour every week day."

IIIII

As they were talking and with Alice being their guard, none of the five were paying attention to what was going on outside the barrier.

Which is why they were so surprised to find Rias Gremory and Himejima Akeno in a glaring contest with Raynare and Kalawarner, while Mittelt and Toujou Koneko exchanged candies under the watchful eyes of Dohnaseek and Yuuto Kiba.

The three girls and Mikazuki, as he was in full security mode sensing the tenseness of the others, quickly grabbed their cellphones, Mikazuki's actions making the two other males tense due to looking like he was grabbing a gun.

Issei, however, had the perfect way to unwind the situation:

 _Click_ "Now… kiss!"

 _Everyone_ stopped what they were doing to look at the guy, who was looking between Rias and Raynare with a camera on his hands.

Raynare huffed and turned away from the devil girl, who coughed in her hand. But in Issei's opinion their blushing faces were still cute, so he took a new pic anyway.

Then quickly took two more as Alice was adorably obedient and kissed the cheeks of the two.

"So… hello everyone!" he finally said, as the girls resisted the urge to hug the little one. "I didn't expect any of you to join us."

"Yes, well… you are now a member of the Occult Research Club, so even if you are not a member of my peerage I thought it would be best to aim for your safety…"

"They were trying to spy on you," Raynare interrupted bluntly.

Issei just nodded.

"Wh-what about you? What is _your_ group doing here?"

Raynare huffed, but answered. "Since you are the president of the Occult Research Club, and it was recently declared that members of the supernatural are members of it, I suppose it is only fair to tell you me and Mittelt are now also members."

"…Ara?" Himejima asked. Issei knew that if she was looking in his direction she would be trying to glare him into ashes.

"Yeah, the orders we were following that made us clash with Hyoudou-san were apparently sent by a superior that was planning to split from our group. The original orders, right from Azazel-sama, were to protect and try to recruit them.

So he talked with the director, and we were sent to apologize and to this time try to fulfill our actual original missions."

"And… the administrator allowed this?" Rias asked, with a twitch in her eye.

"Apparently Azazel-sama went directly to his son with the request. It was considered 'an attempt to socialize and integrate peacefully members of both factions in an experimental way'… so I'm guessing that we are also supposed to try not to kill each other."

Gremory and Himejima sighed at this.

IIIII

A month passes.

Issei would like to think his date with Katase went well, at least her asking for a repeat made it seem so. In the end they liked many things the other did, and the girl did have a small perverted streak, even if Issei still out-perved her. A kiss in the cheek was the perfect finish for him.

Murayama's date the next weekend, Issei finally figured out why she was so nervous. She was apparently very shy if not the one in control of the situation. She kept texting someone before doing anything – Issei was pretty sure it was Katase – until he gave up, put a hand over her phone and asked her if he could have a date with her and not with her friend. Ironically, that resulted in the very same ending, a kiss on the cheek and asking for a repeat.

A pouting Asia ended up on them having a date the next day, even if they never called it that. It was clear she was feeling a bit left out.  
Alice went with them. It helped to keep Asia less nervous, since it 'wasn't a date'.  
No promises of repeat, since it wasn't officially a date. And Issei doubted that Asia would kiss his cheek, although from her fierce blush she was thinking of it.  
Alice did so with no problem, though.

The next Friday, a blushing Raynare went to Issei and declared that he'd be taking her to a date next and left, grumbling about not losing to mere humans.  
A confused Issei had no choice but agree. The date went pretty close to their first one, but no killing attempts.  
Issei liked to think it was because she was really enjoying it and not just because of the people watching the date at a distance.

Besides his romantic escapades, Issei was more focused on their training, though. The demon were improving, the gremlin more than any others, having learned Dream Fist, a physical attack that could make the targt sleepy, and Zio, an electric spell. Nadja learned Dia and Posumundi. The angel only learned the cleansing Patra, but still progress. Pele seemed to not learn any battle skills, but she became able to use Issei's healing items.

All in all, Issei supposed it was good progress for beginners.

But… he wasn't a beginner. And he couldn't help but feel his own progress was stagnating.

…

Was that a magic circle appearing in the middle of his room?

IIIII

Rias Gremory was expecting many things when she entered Hyoudou Issei's room in lingerie.

An Issei in uniform holding the tip of a sword centimeters from her throath was not one of those.

She expected appraisal in those eyes. She got it.

She expected lust in them, though, not someone ready to kill her if she moved a muscle wrong.

In all of that, to her surprise, her first thought was wondering if she should have tried asking him for a date like the other girls.

IIIII

 **A bit rushed near the end, but I got stuck in this for a while and wanted to finish this interlude in one chapter.**

 **Why all those dates? Well, I had already said they were going to happen in earlier chapters so I kinda painted myself into a corner. I** _ **had**_ **to at least allude that they happened.**

 **Save for Asia and Raynare. Asia was because even in canon with the perverted Issei she is already devoted to him at this point, and Raynare it was more for competitiveness. I thought it would be even worse if** _ **those**_ **happened and** _ **these**_ **didn't.**

 **So, yeah. Don't like this ending. Personally, I could have jumped from the ending of their talk in the park right to Rias entering his room, like in the anime, but I just** _ **had**_ **to try and be fair with the timeline…  
Yes, I know, Romance tag... but it seemed too rushed even before I rushed them.**

 **On other news…**

 **So, I ended up adding the DLCs… Didn't seem like a big deal, since they are slightly improved starter equipment with interesting skins. Think of it as for completionist's sake. (it is the actual reason I bought them, I actually just wanted the story-related ones but… they were there…)**

 **Yes, in the future the teams will go full Devil Survivor thanks to that APK. I limited Burroughs to seven other members because… well, in Devil Survivor** _ **ten**_ **is the highest number of teammates you can have in a route besides the MC. The max multiple of eight lower than that is eight itself, and computer savvy should already know why eight. Minus one for Issei himself, and you end up with seven other members.  
I don't really have that many members planned, but again I didn't plan on adding Mil-tan until I started writing the chapter so…**

 **Also, important thing: these added demons will have their Apocalypse stats, for one reason: I wanted to give Asia an Angel, but I wanted an Angel with damage skills. In Apocalypse the Angel got Hama, but on it Light and Dark do actual damage, only having OHKO properties if the demon is Smirking when it is used (a Smirk is a state got in the game when you hit a critical hit or, sometimes, an enemy weakness. You can't have any negative state. Among other things, it increases your dodge and change of critical strikes go to the roof).  
In other words, it won't kill outright anymore unless under special circunstances, but… this is the best option for this story exactly because of that.**

 **Issei's Compendium demons are still the normal SMTIV ones.**


	6. Challenging the Flaming Peacock

**Ok, a quick chapter, not sure if it is pretty good either since it skips a bunch of canon stuff due to Issei not being a demon. Hope the skips aren't too grating.**

 **Someone asked if the Angel will evolve, like it does in SMT IV and SMT IV: A. The answer is yes, but it's appearance will be a bit changed… Think of it as a custom demon, like the High Pixie from one of the Raidou games that looks like a normal pixie in a yukata.**

IIIII

"So... Rias Gremory," Issei said, his voice a coldness she never expected him to be able to use. "What an unexpected visit."

"H-hello, Hyoudou-kun. I was hoping you could do me a favor."

"And for this favor you decide to teleport into my room, in the middle of the night, with no warning, at a point most people would expect me to be sleeping and unprotected?"

"W-well… when you put it that way… it does sound kinda fishy…" she could only say, playing nervously with the strap of her bra.

That _finally_ drew Issei's attention from her body movements to her clothes – or lack of.

"Gremory-san, why are you in your underwear?"

"Uhm, because of the favor I had to ask?"

Issei's eye visibly twitched. "I know I used to be a much more outspoken pervert than nowadays, but I hope you are not thinking that I can be persuaded to do anything just because you are showing some skin."

"…I'm in my underwear."

"Ok, so quite a bit of skin."

"But no, that is not exactly to convince you… well, I was hoping it'd help, but I didn't think I'd need it, it was more to save time. I'm in a bit of a hurry."

"…what? What sort of favor would save time by having you…"

"I want you to take my virginity! As soon as possible!"

Issei could only gape at her for a bit.

"… _Why_?"

"Because the only two males I know enough and trust for this are you and Kiba-kun, and Kiba would do it out of loyalty but would feel too guilty, if he even did it."

Issei clearly had more questions than answers. Mostly because that did not really answer his question, but also…

"You trust me?"

Rias avoided his gaze, but she could feel her cheeks burning. "Yes. I've… actually been paying attention to you for a while, before your sudden change, I was planning on calling you to join my peerage… I consider myself a good judge of character, and besides you being a pervert you were honest, and a good person.  
I… was actually a bit disappointed that you changed, but spending some time with you showed that the parts I admired are still the same, just… not hidden by the perversion anymore. Even the parts of you that annoy me are just because you are applying that good to everyone. And you even got a better sense of humor now."

Issei couldn't help but blush at her honesty. And really, being looked at like that by one of the most admired girls in the school still felt great… but…

"And why do you want me to take your virginity out of nowhere? Shouldn't you at least take me on a date first? Dinner and wine, give me some flowers?"

Rias laughed at that. "Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Issei just shrugged. "I'm not one to worry about these things."

Rias chuckled. Then got serious. "I… wouldn't mind in other circunstances. But—"

She stopped though, when Issei drew a pistol and pointed to the other side of the room, even before _she_ noticed the energy forming a new symbol… a symbol that made her start to sweat cold.

"Issei! Don't point a gun at her!"

"Don't worry, I won't fire unless provoked."

"It is not _her_ being hurt that is the problem!"

From the circle, rose a beautiful woman with silver hair in braids, wearing a blue maid uniform. Her expression was stern, as if prepared to admonish someone. And considering the situation…

…Issei had no idea of the situation, actually.

"So… first a beauty in lingerie asking to take her virginity, now another in a maid outfit… is there a superpoweful demon sealed in my left testicle or something?"

"Right testicle," Rias corrected. "I-I mean, no. I mean, I have no idea what reference you are making!"

"…Right…"

The maid looked at the two, confused. So she decides to ignore Issei, and addresses Rias directly.

"What is he talking about? Are you trying to break the agreement by doing _this_?"

Rias answered by crossing her arms. "If I don't go that far, both Otou-sama and Onii-sama won't listen to me, right?"

"Both Sirzechs-sama and the master will become sad after they find out you tried to give your purity to… a _human_ of all things."

"My purity is mine only. What is wrong giving it to someone I acknowledge?"

"I am _so_ confused right now…" was all Issei could say.

The maid turned to him and bowed, ignoring the gun aimed at the middle of her chest.

"How do you do. I am a maid that serves the house of Gremory. My name is Grayfia. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Hyoudou Issei," he replied simply. "I can't help but notice that whatever agreement it is, Gremory-san seems to not have been the one that agreed to it."

"Unfortunatelly, it is as you say."

"Grayfia, enough," Rias interrupted. "Hyoudou-san, sorry for involving you in this. I will explain it tomorrow in the clubroom."

Issei sighs, but removes the sword from her neck and lowers the gun.

Then, to his surprise, Rias gives him a small kiss on the cheek.

"Forgive me for the trouble."

And the two were gone.

IIIII

As Issei went to class, Asia just looked at him. He seemed weirdly pensive, and in a bad mood.

She was wondering how to ask him what was worrying him.

He was like this during the whole day, actually, and after class he went straight to the Occult Research Club. Worried about him, she followed, meeting the members of the Kendo Club on the way.

"What's wrong with Ise?" Murayama asked. So she wasn't the only one to notice.

"I don't know. He was like this since breakfast this morning…"

"Did you ask him?" asked Katase this time.

"Well, I…"

The short-haired girl sighed. Those two would never ask him without a good reason, so it was best if she asked him.

They ran after him, and he was surprisingly already near the door to the ORC despite not being running, just walking quickly.

"Hey, Issei!" she said, in a bit of an angry tone, "What's going on? Your mood is worrying us."

"That's what I'm here to find out."

Under those confusing words, he opened the door and entered.

Inside, besides the usual – demonic – members of the ORC, was someone dressed as a maid.

"Ah, Grayfia-san," Issei said, "I did not expect you to be here when Gremory-san explained to me _what exactly was that all about_."

The three girls turned their looks of confusion to Rias, who just coughed in her hand awkwardly.

"Oh?" sounded the confused voice of Kiba behind them, followed by the fallen angels Raynare (once again using the fake name Amano Yuma) and Mittelt (who thought her name sounded foreign enough to fit her appearance).

"Good, everyone is here. Please, take a seat," Rias said, ignoring the confused stares with trained propriety.

Issei did so, but kept his gaze on the redhead's eyes.

"Ojou-sama, do you want me to explain the situation?" the woman Issei identified as Grayfia asked.

Rias waved her hand in negative. "They deserve to hear it from me, especially Issei. The truth is—"

At that moment, the teleportation circle the demons use to move around starts glowing… but the symbol in the middle changes.

"Phenex," Kiba says, in an annoyed tone.

Then the circle bursts into flames.

IIIII

Riser Phenex expected many things when he entered the room through magic circle. Not acceptance from Rias, of course, and definitely some hostility from her, but from her pearage he expected from the annoyance they seemed to regard him with to adoration from any girls she got to join it.

What he did _not_ expect was for Rias to allow someone to outright blast him with a fire extinguisher.

Looking at the source of the foam, Riser met the eyes of a young male slightly younger than Rias with a bored expression, but that couldn't hide the mirth on his eyes.

He had to try _very_ hard not to punch that face.

He decided to ignore how everyone he already knew looked at the young man like they envied him the opportunity to do that.

"Who… pfft, who are you?"

"Hyoudou Issei," the young man answered, in an annoyed tone. "Now if you'd excuse us, we were having an important conversation."

Hmph, this Hyoudou clearly had no idea who he was talking to. "I am Riser Phenex. My lovely Rias probably told you servants about me."

"One, not a servant, and two, no, no word about you. Three, if you are supposed to be cultured enough to talk in this tone, then you were raised enough to know it is impolite to come unannounced to someone else's domain, spreading your flames like a peacock's tail outside your own domain, and interrupt a serious conversation without a very important reason. So unless you are aiming to antagonize everyone here, I'd advise you to apologize and leave. Else I'll sock you in the mouth."

So much insolence! "I am Riser Phenex! Third child of Lord Phenex and engaged to Rias Gremory! Who do you think you are?"

"I think I am Hyoudou Issei, someone who was having an important conversation with her. And your title of third child, unless the other two are dead, means you are merely 'the spare of the spare', so clearly not as important as you claim to be. And I do not see the relevance of this, _or_ of you being engaged to her, to justify your actions."

Riser's anger made him burst in flames once more. "How dare you, you insolent vermin?"

Of course, Issei answered by _throwing extinguisher foam over him again_.

"With my overwhelming chutzpah, apparently. Let me make it clearer to you, oh great third child of your family. You could be Lucifer himself, or herself, whatever. _You_ are in the wrong here. And if you insist on acting like a child, I will treat you like one."

Riser was fuming. Such insolence! Such humiliation!

"My lovely Rias," he finally said, deciding to ignore the insolent little man for now. He would take what was coming to him later. "I came for us to take a look at the ceremony hall. The date of the ceremony is decided so we need to check it before then."

IIIII

Riser went around Issei to grab her arm, and Rias couldn't help but recoil in disgust. _That_ was the man their parents were forcing her to marry…

It was to her surprise that the next second Hyoudou was holding Riser's other wrist, and from the expression on Riser's face the hold was painful.

"It does not look like she appreciates your actions. I will say once more, please leave. We are in the middle of a conversation and you are going way past what politeness lets me allow."

"Issei-san, I believe it would be best to let him tell his piece and leave" Grayfia interrupts the scene, and Rias barely holds back the sigh. As much as she was fearing for Hyoudou's continued existence, that scene was extremely cathartic.

"…Very well. But he better keep his hands to himself unless allowed explicitly."

"Agreed," Grayfia said, looking seriously at the Phenex. Rias was grateful.

IIIII

He did not like Riser, Issei decided. It began as a bit of fun, as much as it was a bit mean-spirited he had ready excuses. But the man's actions, they reminded him of Navarre at his worst, an entitled man who never had to do any hard work before yet believed himself superior to everyone around him.

As they had the tea served by Himejima, judging by the reactions of the others, he was not the only one with similar thoughts about him. Himejima treated him the same as she treated the fallen angels, which was telling. Even Asia tried to stay as far away from him as politely possible.

The only ones close to the man were Rias, since they were engaged, Himejima to serve the tea, and Grayfia, whom he seemed to fear angering.

"I told you before, Raiser! I will not marry you!" Rias said. It seemed he was right, even _she_ disliked the guy.

"Yeah, I heard that before," he dismissed her. "But Rias, that won't do, you know? I think the situation of your household is quite serious."

That drew Issei's attention. Was her family with money trouble, hoping to marry her for the dowry?

"That's none of your concern! If I'm the next heiress for the House of Gremory, then I will choose who will become my husband! My father, brother, and everyone in the clan are rushing it!" she said seriously. "Also it was a promise that I will be free until I graduate from university of the human world!"

"That's right. You will basically be free. You can go to college and you can do whatever you like with your servants. But your Otou-sama and Sirzechs-sama are worried. They are afraid that your household will become extinct. We lost a great number of pure-blood Devils in the last war. Even if the war has ended, our rivalry with the Fallen Angels and God hasn't ended yet. It's not rare for the successors of pure-blood Devil to get killed in the worthless battle against them, which leads to the household becoming extinct. So for a pure-blood Devil that are also happens to be a High-class Devil, getting together would be the obvious solution for the forces of Devils. A pure-blood High-class Devil. Even you know that these children will be important from now on, right?"

He couldn't help but snort.

Riser did his best to ignore him.

Rias, however, seemed to have other plans.

"Yes, Hyoudou-kun? Do you have anything you want to say?"

"Just that he is trying _too_ hard to sell that your father and brother are worried about blood purity or whatever, it seems more like he is trying to guilty-trip you into marrying him earlier because he is afraid of you finding someone better and cancelling the marriage."

"Oh, you were paying more attention to him than me, I basically tuned out most of his argument."

"Don't blame you."

Rias took a deep breath, as if just talking to the guy was a chore. Issei could see it.

"I'm not going to crush my house. And I am willing to take a husband."

"Oh, to be expected from Rias!" Phenex says, smiling as if he had won. "Then let's—"

"But I won't marry you, Riser. I will marry the one I acknowledge. Even the Devils from the old noble houses have the right to choose."

Riser, hearing that, becomes serious. His eyes glowed with rage as he rose from his chair.

"…You know, Rias, I'm also a Devil who carries the name of House of Phenex behind me. I can't let that name get tarnished. I didn't even want to come to a small old building like this in the human world. Rather, I don't like the human world that much. The fire and wind of this world is filthy. For a Devil like me who rules fire and wind, I can't stand it!"

He burst into flames. Thanks to Grayfia, Issei was too far from the fire extinguisher to use it.

Very well. The time for fake politeness had long passe.

"I will take you back to the underworld, even if I have to burn—"

 ***bang***

"GAAH!"

He was not able to finish that threat, to occupied screaming in agony his bleeding knee. Energy from the holy bullet could be felt. Luckily for him, the shot went through his leg.

 _Everyone_ looked surprised at Issei.

"…I warned him. I do _not_ threaten in vain."

"Hyoudou-san, that was not needed. I was prepared to act before things escalated," Grayfia childed him.

"I am sorry, Grayfia-san. I will keep that in mind for the next time."

He was not really sorry. Everyone there could see it. And even Phenex could see he was the only one really annoyed by that.

Grayfia continued, as if that never happened. "Master, Sirzechs-sama, and those from the House of Phoenix knew it would turn out like this. To tell you the truth this was to be the last discussion meeting. Everyone knew that it wouldn't be solved, so they decided to make a last resort."

"Last resort? What do you mean, Grayfia?"

"Apparently, only Riser Phenex ever thought he had a chance of you agreeing to marry him."

"Not the obvious part, Hyoudou-kun."

Riser decided best to fume silently, apparently, as he tried pulling himself to a chair.

"Ojou-sama, if you wish to push your opinion forward, then how about you settle it by having a Rating Game against Raiser-sama?"

Seeing the clear confusion on Issei's face, Kiba decided to explain.

"It's a game that is played by the Devils with peerage, and they compete by making their servants battle."

"Just as you know, Ojou-sama, only mature aged Devils can participate in an official Rating Game. But if it's an unofficial match between pure-blood Devils, even immature Devils can participate. For example, in this case—"

"It involves the family and household problems," Rias finished with a sigh. "In other words Otou-sama and the others decided to have a game as a last resort if I was to decline, right? …Just how far are they intending to interfere with my life to feel satisfied…"

"Then Ojou-sama, you are saying you would also decline to participate in the game?"

"What would happen if she declined?" Issei asked.

"She would be agreeing to the marriage."

"So her only 'choice' is a competition against a more experienced competitor? Doesn't sound like a fair chance."

Grayfia wisely did not reply.

"Indeed, Hyoudou-kun, but it is apparently the only acceptable option. Very well, I will compete."

Raiser smirks.

"I don't mind. But, as pointed out, I'm already a matured Devil and I have already participated in the official game. Right now I have won most of the games. Even so, you still want to play, Rias?"

"I will," Rias replied without a doubt. "I will blow you away, Raiser!"

"Fine. If you win, do whatever you like. But if I win, you will marry me immediately."

The two glared at each other.

"Understood. I, Grayfia, have confirmed both sides' opinion. I will be in charge of the game between the two household. Is that okay?"

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Understood. I will inform the two households then," she said, finishing with a bow.

"So Rias," Riser asks, a teasing tone on his voice, "are the ones here your servants?"

"Some of them, so what?" she replies, clearly knowing she will be annoyed by what he is going to do.

"Then this match will be a laugh. Only your Queen, the 'Priestess of Thunder', can fight on par with my adorable servants."

Riser clicks his fingers, and the magic circle glows again, fifteen forms appearing.

"Well, these are my cute servants," Riser said, proudly.

Issei had questions, though.

"…were they _waiting for this signal to come_?" he asked. He then turned to Grayfia. "Did he _know_ about this whole duel thing before you told us?"

"He shouldn't," Grayfia said.

"What other reason would he have to have them stand waiting like that?"

"You said yourself, Hyoudou-kun," Rias explained. "He is a flaming peacock."

"Well… if he is willing to let us analyze his pieces, so let's do that," Issei said, looking at a girl in armor that glares at him. The pervert in him wants to check out this body. The survivor wants to check out her apparent skills.

Luckily for him, he can do both.

"Hmm, the armor makes it seem like she is a Rook, since it should be in the way should she need to do speedy movements like a Knight should… but it is very form-fitting. If it is useable and not just decoration, she probably _could_ work this as a Knight, and it would deal with a bit of their inherent fragility."

"But why would he give her armor if she is a Rook? Wouldn't that be redundant?" Rias questioned.

"Eh, more like an overspecialization. But not only other teams could have a naturally tougher Rook, the number of members also allows him to specialize some without losing useability since others could give a Tank proper cover. Look at this one, for example," he said, pointing to a girl with a big sword on her back yet very light clothes, "she could be a Rook to be able to use that sword with her full strength, or a Knight that uses the weight as a lever to move her body…"

"Actually, since they are devils they are stronger than a human, so those things wouldn't affect them as much," Rias pointed out.

"That is good enough in a battle against humans, but against other devils that difference could be substantial," he replied.

"And on the other hand, we have this one," he said, pointing out a girl wearing Chinese clothes. "With such light clothing, she is either a Bishop, since the clothing wouldn't interfere much with casting magic, or, not to stereotype but a martial artist. So she could be either a Rook, to allow her to take some damage and give more, or a Knight to get more hits and avoid being hit easier, depending on her personal style."

He took a step back, taking a good look at the fifteen. "All in all, they seem competent enough, and I can't tell their positions just from looking. Whoever made up this team did a good job."

"Oh thank you, finally some deserved respect," Riser said pompously.

To which Issei rolled his eyes. "Yes, because the five minutes I spent in your presence were _not_ enough to show me this definitely was _definitely_ not your work."

Riser frowned, but said nothing. "Regardless of the opinions of the peanut gallery, as you can see Rias, you do not have any chance. I give you one last chance to give up this foolishness."

"The only foolishness here is you thinking I'd ever accept marrying you without being forced, Riser!"

The blond only shook his head. "Very well. If that is all, I suppose we only need to arrange a time. Ten days from now seem good enough."

"Are you giving me a handicap?" Rias says angrily.

"What an uneven number of days," Issei says back, stopping her from saying something stupid. "We are on a Tuesday. Sure, ten is round as a number, but you should at least say 'two Saturdays from now' or 'two Sundays from now'. …Or are those few extra days enough for her to get a win over you?"

"Very well," Riser grumbled. "two Saturdays from now. And the wedding will the the next day."

"There will be no wedding," Rias replied.

Riser however wasn't looking at her anymore. "I will enjoy making you submit to me, Hyoudou Issei."

"I don't swing that way, Flaming Peacock. …also, not a member of her peerage.  
A shame, really. I _really_ want to fight you so I can punch your face in."

Riser tsc's. "Oh well. I guess I will have to content myself with the main prize."

And thus, he and his peerage leave.

IIIII

The next minute, the humans and fallen are asked to leave so the devils could have a strategy meeting.

The fallen just shrug and leave.

"You should help them," Murayama say, Asia nodding at her side.

"I offered, they declined me. I did everything I could besides telling them about how I got so good at analyzing opponents."

"Maybe… maybe you should," Asia said, clearly a bit fearful of angering him. "I mean, she seems to really need help, and knowing you really can help…"

Issei looked to the sky, pensive. The sky… he sometimes forgot he _had_ one now to look at…

"I guess. I'll ask to talk to her tomorrow, doubt she'll be in the mood to listen to me today."

IIIII

"They went on a training trip?"

Issei couldn't find any of the devils of the ORC, so he went for the other one he knew, Shitori Sona.

"Yes. As you are aware, they are in dire need of increasing their strength and planning."

"That is exactly why I need to talk to them."

"Sorry, but I doubt you would be more than an annoyance for them so I refuse to let you contact them."

Issei looked deep in her eyes… and unlike with Rias, saw a complete lack of trust in him.

"I… I see…"

He refused to tell _her_ , then.

"Very well. Do you know if there is a way to let me watch the Rating Game? And a way to let me see the marriage contract?"

"What for?"

"I have a plan. From the few details I know it may work, but I need to check."

"Doubt it, but very well. It shouldn't do any harm."

IIIII

Hearing the knock on the door, Asia opened it to find Issei reading some papers with his full attention, a notepad on his other hand.

"Issei-sa… I mean Ise-kun, is something wrong?"

"Chances are they will be," he sighed. "I don't want you to think I'm thinking lo of them, but… Gremory's team's chances are low. But… I think I found a loophole I can use to help her… but…"

"If you believe you can help her, you should. You always did what you thought was right even if it was hard, Issei-san!"

"Actually, the problem is that I'll need your help, and of the others, but especially from you."

Asia was surprised by that. "From me?"

"Tell me Asia, since you are not a member of the church anymore but still follows the teachings, can you still make Holy Water?"

IIIII

The Rating Game… went better for Rias' team than expected, but she still lost.

But that was not the point of the game for Issei. He was hoping, but he had prepared for the worst.

Part of the preparations involved watching the whole game. And, as expected, he now had an idea of the skills of _everyone_ on Riser's team, with notes to plan around them.

…Oh, and he also met Rias' brother.

"I… guess I deserved that," the one that presented himself to him as Sirzechs Lucifer said. Everyone else but Rias' team looked astonished at the scene.

Due to the fact Issei had punched him in the nose.

"But you need to understand, I could not privilege my sister by using my power annul the marriage agreement. This kind of abuse of power would show me as biased and could cause a civil war."

Issei grabbed the neck of his ceremonial armor, pulling him closer to be able to tell him something face-to-face.

"You are a politician in the height of power. You have a _right_ to use this power to better the lives of your people. Making marriage agreements need the approval of both people to be married instead of allowing them to be strong-armed into it would benefit _many_ people, yous sister being only one of them."

Then, he said something in a lower tone of voice.

"Luckily for you, I have a plan. If you really care for your sister, you will find a way to get me and a few friends into that ceremony before the marriage is confirmed."

His reply was a small smile.

"I was hoping you would agree to it, glad we had the same plan then. My sister thinks highly of you. Don't disappoint her."

IIIII

"This magic circle will allow you to the hall of the engagement party of the House of Gremory and the House of Phoenix," Grayfia said as she finished creating the circle. "Sorry for taking so long, I had to make some adjustments to let humans utilize them."

The five humans stepped into the circle. Mil-tan was wearing his gothic Lolita dress, with cat ears over his head. Murayama and Katase were wearing Issei's original Prentice Samurai clothes and White Samurai, respectively, their official-looking design not interfering with their sword skills. Asia was wearing a red samurai armor Issei called a Genke Rindo.

Issei himself as wearing his modified school uniform, but the other four humans were aware he was planning on changing clothes soon.

"For curiosity's sake, what would you have done had master Sirzechs disagreed with making this?"

Issei didn't have to think to answer.

"First, I would ask Rias to invite us personally to the wedding. As much as she doesn't want it, I think she considers us her friends at least a bit.

Then I'd do my best to take over the devil world and rule over it properly."

Everyone present looked at him in surprise, from Grayfia to the four humans to Alice who was just going there to watch.

Mil-tan shrugged. "I'd vote for you."

"Yeah! Onii-chan for devil emperor!"

Grayfia looked in his eyes… and saw that he was serious.

"Please, do not fail."

Issei just nodded as the circle teleported them away to the wedding.

IIIII

The halls are elegantly furnished and filled with portraits. The doors are engraved with images of mystical beasts. But that is not important right now.

The place is filled with devils dressed elegantly talking with each other. But Issei's group has no reason to talk with any of them, so they just try to get through.

Quite a few look weirded out by the group… or maybe just by Mil-tan. The soul of a pure girl it may be, but the body was of a bodybuilder wearing that dress.

Ah, there she is. A young woman wearing a white dress, crimson hair tied up, and a miserable expression on her face.

"Rias Gremory," Issei says loudly, "The rescue team you requested has arrived."

"What?" she said, surprised. "I mean, not that I wouldn't like it, but… what?"

"I know, I know, the team leader is a bit lacking. I mean, entering the depths of the domains of two devil families to rescue someone being forced into marriage against her will… This calls for the greatest, bravest warrior in the human world! Too bad I'm all you got for, but when you got lemons you make lemonade, find a cute kid to sell the lemonade for you for half the profits, then use your share to buy what you really wanted instead of the lemons. Or more lemons if the profit was not enough."

"Are you an idiot?" Riser Phenex asked, eyeing the group. "No, do not answer, the answer is obvious."

"Coming from you, that word has no meaning."

A guard moves to stop Issei as he approaches the duo, but finds himself held back by a small white-haired girl. Another moves, and Yuuto and then Himejima get in their way.

"Ara ara, Issei-kun, hope you know what you are doing. This is borderline insanity, you know."

"What can I say, my therapist is a rich man. All properly deserved."

"Riser Phenex, under the clauses of the marriage contract, I challenge your right to Rias Gremory's hand."

"Oh? How so?"

"The contract allows a third party to challenge one of the named parties to take their place, in which case the contract will be nulled and a new one will be agreed upon."

"Oh, so you are doing this for marrying Rias yourself, _human_?"

That word made everyone presentstart talking among themselves, things like "how dare he show his face there" and "how dare he challenge a devil" and "vermins should watch their position".

"Not really," Issei said, ignoring the words of the people that were unwilling to fight for Rias and thus, in his eyes, were as unworthy of his attention as they considered him of theirs. "The contract I plan on will have plenty of escape clauses, like for example, if even one of the parties want to break it, it will be done. My main goal is free her from you, not take your place."

"Hah, not like that contract would ever be enforced, human. This marriage is for—"

"Stop the excuses, we both know you do not care for blood purity and devil society, all you want is to make those that challenge you like she did kneel before you in servitude."

Riser gritted his teeth.

"It does not matter what you believe. I have nothing to win by agreeing to this challenge."

"If you win, I pledge my whole life in servitude."

The crowd started talking even more at those words.

"What worth would your servitude be to me? Even if it is the most valuable thing you have to offer, your whole like would be like a blink to me."

Issei crossed his arms. "That sounds like an excuse to not be humiliated by a mere human in battle."

"Believe what you want."

"Oh, I will," Issei said with a smile. "And so will every demon present in the crowd."

That reminded Riser of their company. Representatives of the most important houses, all watching eagerly for him to either put the insolent human in his place or to shame his family name by refusing a challenge from someone inferior.

"Very well, human," he said between his teeth, "you got your duel. Make your challenge."

"You and your peerage. Me, my team and our familiars… save for Alice, who will be watching with the crowd."

Behind Issei, Alice curtsied to Riser.

"As long as a human remains, a familiar can be called. Familiars can defeat devils, but if only familiars remain it is your victory. A downed human or devil cannot be brought back, but a downed familiar can. No limitation on magical items, as long as they were carried by the participants into the arena and not given externally by a non-participant."

"Those rules are acceptable," Riser said, smirking.

IIIII

"That… went better than expected," Issei said. "I really feared he was with a more level head today, being getting married like he wanted and all."

"Well, when you want to annoy, you are really good at it. Even when you don't, actually," Murayama quipped.

"It is my natural charisma. If we lived in DnD I'd probably be a bard…. Hopefully in a version where bards are good."

"Pathfinder?" Mil-tan suggested.

"I heard of it, but never tried."

"Are ara, seems like you were serious about playing tabletop roleplaying games on the Occult Research Club, Hyoudou-kun."

Himejima approached the group, followed by Rias Gremory.

"What can I say, it can be a good bonding experience."

"Issei-kun… no, Hyoudou-san…" Rias started.

Issei interrupted her, though. "My friends call me Ise. …well, save for Asia, but she can't help being overly polite yet."

"I'm sorry…" was all the ex-nun could say.

"See what I mean?"

"Ise-kun then… I thank you for what you are trying to do, but—"

"Save it," he said. "I'm not doing it for you, not really. It is more for myself. You could call it a bad habit, but I just can't help but doing what I believe is right, for better or worse."

"That's… a rather twisted way of looking at it, trying to make this about you instead of me. _Still_ means you are just naturally helpful, though."

"…and what if I said that was just an excuse and I just _really_ want to punch his face in?"

"I'd say it is understandable," she said with a small laugh. "But I think it was the first one more, at best I give it a 50-50."

Issei just shrugged.

"I guess that means there is no way I can convince you of changing your mind? I mean, there is still time, and if you lose—"

This time Issei stopped her not with words, but with a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry. We may not have had a two-week training trip, but we _did_ train during that time you were away, and we have a plan you'd probably never have thought of. And I doubt he did, either."

That apparently annoyed Rias, who shrugged his hand from her shoulder. "Oh? And why do you think so?"

Issei smiled mysteriously at that. "And spoil it for you? No thanks. Himejima, take a pic of her when she does figure out, please?"

And thus Issei turned around, leaving a fuming Rias and a laughing Akeno behind.

IIIII

As expected, the arena took the form of Kuoh Academy, just like for Rias' battle. Probably in the same teasing fashion as for her, or maybe because Issei used her battle as a base for the rules, but that did not matter for them.

In fact, that they knew the location of a certain structure was a great help for their plans.

Issei was now wearing a red armor, the R Scorpion. The armor was decent if a bit bulky. The problem with it was the helmet was a bit ridiculous, so he was wearing a blue bandana on his face instead.

"Looking good," Katase joked.

"Yeah… for the price I had to pay for it, you'd expect the head piece to look better… at least the main function is in the chest armor, so I can just not use it."

"Did the plan work?" Mil-tan asked. It all depended on this moment.

"It should. I worded in a way that allows it to, anyway."

Issei raised his gauntleted hand… and a bag appeared in it.

"Good. So either Burroughs counts as a familiar, or as a magical item carrying other magical items. Either way, we have all our gear with us."

The five nodded.

Issei took a deep breath, and put his hand inside the bag.

"Ok, this is it, folks. The real deal. Let's remember the plan one last time."

IIIII

 **Before anyone says anything (something someone will say, since this is an edit) my reasoning for the challenge was that the contract certainly had escape clauses, since Rias could escape by giving up her purity, but also in canon Issei had to have help from Sirzechs to enforce them, meaning something made him unable to otherwise. That was my interpretation.**

 **I'll be honest, I had all the intention to make Issei just use the normal Fire Guard. Less powerful and functions just like I need for this. But I started a New Game+, still didn't do the mission to get it to check the design, and couldn't find any images online of it…**

 **This armor, on the other hand, is just Camael's armor in appearence. It is not even a DLC, just from a secret (and expensive) shop in the game.**

 **So, either I released the chapter now with this armor, or you'd have to wait until I was able to buy the other one in the game… Well, you can see what I chose.**


	7. Flaming Peacock x Demon Summoner

**I'd like to apologize right away for the poor battle descriptions of most of this. I wasn't aware of how much damage a Pawn would take to retire and decided it best to eer on the side of caution.**

IIIII

" _There is something strange…"_

The crowd watched with interest as the preparation time was over and the câmeras showed the members of the two fighting teams… and most devils were confused, while the few ones with some human knowledge were a mix of surprised, mystified and wanting to bang their heads to the wall.

" _In your neighborhood…"_

Plastic guns. The humans, wearing armor fit for a battle, were wielding plastic guns of attention-grabbing colors, linked with flexible pipes to backpack-like jugs of water on their back.

Rias held back the wish to laugh. He was right, no devil in their right mind would ever come up with a plan like that.

" _Who you gonna call?"_

But again, most devils would not have a holy maiden on hand to allow them to weaponize Holy Water with Super Soakers.

" _GhostBusters!"_

With that in mind, it made sense they were moving as a crowd. Their goal was most likely going to be the place with the most open supply of ammo, the school pool. That it allowed them to watch all sides properly, including upwards as their glances made clear, was a nice bonus.

Yubelluna was the one big flaw in their plans, as far as she could tell, since she could just blow them with an area explosion, but Issei seemed to be paying attention to her, standing beside Riser on top of the school roof. His confidence could be his downfall in this battle, and Rias was hoping, and was going to enjoy every second of it if it was so.

IIIII

Riser looked in confusion to the group. They walked too confident, and the way the… leader, he guessed he should call him that, kept glancing at Yubelluna meant they knew she could easily split their formation. But those weapons seemed more like toys, and the human that challenged him insisted on singing that song about fighting ghosts.

But what really confused him was that, with the human's conditions, he fully expected him to be loaded with magical items and familiars thinking that would give him an advantage… So why didn't he summon the familiars for the Game?

…his eyes widened. Despite his attitude, he _did_ know something about Rating Games and strategy, and out of all the human's words when they first met the fact he seemed so knowledgeable in battle despite everything yet dismissed the possibility that _he_ could be so too had been _the_ most insulting part of the whole thing, as much as he had been able to hide it. He was proud of himself for almost everything, but his planning abilities and fighting experience were the two things he could say he was proud of himself for no one could claim it had only been luck from the genetic pool, his looks and healing and fire skills coming from his Phenex blood even if he had to work to keep them all perfectly sharp.

And he used that combat experience to review the conditions of the challenge. At no moment it was said the familiars would be summoned before the Game started, meaning that he could summon them at any time, and no numbers were used meaning that he could summon as many as he was able to.

Worse, the magical items rule only forbid _non-participants_ providing them for aid, but the human focused so much on the rules about familiars that it was clear they _did_ count as participants. Participants that he apparently could call to join the battle at any time, if them not being there yet was any sign, and that could give him new magical items any time they arrived.

He couldn't help but give a respectful smile. Oh, he would still wipe the floor with the human and treat him like the vermin his kind was after his victory, but at least now he would see him as a worthy opponent.

…which made his eyes narrow. He was not aware of what those colorful objects were, but they were clearly weapons.

IIIII

Issei looked around. They had entered the woods in the school grounds, since they were trying to draw the enemy to them they had to act like they were actually trying to avoid attention. The opposite, actually, their little song before entering the woods would make it seem like they were confident and underestimated them, yet when they _thought_ they were not safe anymore were trying to get some cover. The perfect bait for an ambush.

He gave a small nod so the others would know the plan worked. They were surrounded, but they were letting them keep walking.

'I'd be surprised if we were not, really,' Issei thought. 'As much as we are doing something really stupid, putting all our eggs in the same basket, out lower numbers also means that by not spreading out we limit the area our enemies have to attack us.  
Most likely the ones to come first will be the weaker ones, to see our abilities and find weak spots for the more experienced ones.'

And so it was, apparently.  
Three girls appeared around them. One of them holding a wooden staff… that was on fire. And two twins wielding chainsaws… that were also on fire.

The staff girl was in front, gunning straight for Issei, while the other two came from the sides of the back, in a triangle formation.

Issei himself wasn't worried, pointing his Super Soaker to the devil. Behind him, he heard the movements of Mil-tan moving to cover Asia as the kendokas went with theirs own weapons towards the other two.

IIIII

Rias' eyes widened. No! They were showing too much of Asia's importance! She had a Super Soaker herself, she should be firing too to pretend she was equal to the others!

IIIII

The kendokas fired their guns… and there is a reason they are _sword_ wielders. They missed, or at least were imprecise enough the two chainsaw girls were able to avoid damage.

But their eyes widened. They noticed what it was.

"Mira!" one of then yelled, "these guns shoot Holy Water!"

The eyes of the staff user widened, and she tried to stop her attack and jump to avoid the blessed shot.

But Issei was much more experienced with guns than the other two. Flynn did use many kinds of pistols, machine guns and even bazookas, after all. And worse, he was so experienced firing at beings much faster than this Mira devil.

Thus the girl was hit right in the eyes.

"GYAAAAH"

She yelled in pain, as if a human had been maced. Her eyes went white, and her face became covered with scars where the water hit.

"Oh shit, oh shit, it wasn't supposed to hurt her so much!"

"Retire her!" one of the twins tried to yell above her screams. "Retire her so she can be healed!"

"Mil-tan!" the panicking boy yelled. Mil-tan nodded and swung a fist at the suffering girl, the harmonizer on the phone in the dress' pocket making the devil more vulnerable and allowing her to be knocked out on one hit of the powerful fist.

Taking deep breaths to calm down, Issei came to a decision. "Ok, new rule. No matter what, no one aims the water guns to eyes or mouth. Clear?"

"Clear," all of his team answered.

The twins were just as shaken. They had experience with Rating Games… but only with those, which were games made among devils. None would ever think of using Holy Water, for they were also vulnerable… meaning they had no idea how to deal with this new threat.

Murayama tsc'd, and she and Katase clipped their water guns to the backpacks. Then drew their swords, the sound of them touching the edges of their scabbards echoing through the small woods.

Now that the humans were not using the Holy Water as a weapon, the two devil girls regained some confidence. One of them, the one fighting Murayama, smirked and advanced on her, the one on Katase following the signal to go the very next second.

The good part of wielding a chainsaw in battle is that, if you hit someone, it _will_ hurt.

The problem of a chainsaw in battle is that, unlike a sword, it does not have a proper weight balance. A well-made sword has a heavy pommel to keep it as close as possible to the weight of the blade, while a chainsaw has an engine near the hand, and the most the "blade" got is the resistance of the object being cleaved through.

It even has a special grip to be held with the other hand to be able to grip it properly.

These are design problems that would not be a problem for their usual function, but become so when weaponizing them.

In other words, Murayama and Katase, two people training to use swords in a competitive field, had an easy time avoiding the initial strike and cutting them back.

The twins were not too worried. After all, they were demons. The humans probably were not strong enough to damage them, their durability made them stronger than most of their weapons. They would be _hurt_ , but since those swords didn't feel like they were blessed they still would not be—

IIIII

Riser sighed. The woods covered the battle, but the announcement of the second and third retirement of his peerage showed that he was right in thinking that he had underestimated the human.

"Report," he said, before Siris, one of his knights, was able to say even a word.

"The opening attack was repealed with minimum trouble. Ile and Nel seemed to be just knocked out by superior fighting skills, but Mira… Those colorful weapons apparently were able to fire jets of Holy Water, and the leader was able to hit her in the face… and it seemed to have got on her eyes."

Riser turned his head to her, surprised. "Was it intentional?" He may have disliked the human, but he did not seem like one for doing something like that.

"The aiming seemed to be, but it seemed like he expected the effects to be closer to a human being hit with their 'mace' tear gas spray rather than acid. They apparently were set aside as emergency weapons."

"That… is good," Riser said. "Shame about Mira, but now they will second-guess using it, and we now know that they still have the option.  
Also, that means the gallons on their back are their ammunition. Spread the word to be careful about damaging those, don't forget that while it is a danger to us, for them it behaves just like normal water, an annoyance at most."

Siris nodded before continuing. "We were not able to ascertain the leader's skills yet, but he is quick to avoid being hit and precise with the water shooter. The two with light armor are sword-wielders, and the one in the dress was able to knock an agonizing Mira out with just one punch… which is strange. The mere approach to the humans seemed to weaken us a bit, as if under a field of holy land but without the discomfort of the presence."

Riser had to think about this… "And the blond armored girl?"

"She did not act yet. But the one in the dress tried to protect her from Ile and Nel."

"She is probably the source of the field, which explains why they are walking together like this," he said after thinking a bit. "And even if she isn't, she is probably an important point of their strategy, to be guarded like that.  
And the familiars? Did any of them appear? He made it very clear that they were an important point of his group's strategy in his conditions."

"No familiars were seen by any of us, master. Are you sure they will appear? Maybe they were just mentioned to sour confusion?"

Riser frowned at that. That… was a distinct possibility. "Well, better to pay attention for them anyway. Meanwhile, send all the five remaining Pawns. Make them seem to want to fight the others, but their main focus should be to remove the blonde from the game."

"As you command," was his answer, the woman disappearing in a fast movement.

IIIII

The human group kept advancing through the woods. That served the double duty of pretending they could be ambushed and that they were trying to avoid detection, and to avoid Yubelluna being able to snipe them from the air easily.

Thus they were not really surprised when the remaining five of Riser's Pawns appeared around them.

What _did_ surprise them was what they were wearing… well, surprised all but Issei, who did watch their game with Rias' team.

Still still considered him a lucky bastard. Since, discounting the apprentice samurai and loli twins he already fought, the remaining Pawns were clearly fetish fuel. The one aiming for him was dressed in a very close silver version of Slave Leia outfit. The ones fighting the kendo girls were wearing maid outfits, in different levels of exposure but both with really short skirts. And Mil-tan was fighting once more twins, this time with different eye and hair colors, that were catgirls and with so skimpy sailor uniforms a wrong move would expose their breasts…

"Hey Mil-tan, wanna trade?"

"No, thank you. Not the first time I had to fight two people at once. Save your energy."

Well, there goes that plan… Issei could feel the glares on his back. _The girls knew!_

…They _really_ should have expected that from him. They have known him for months and had to beat him for peeping many times.

A sigh from both sides. They apparently agree.

"Uhm, Ise-san?"

"Yes, Asia?"

"Why is no one attacking?"

"Because we are surrounded, we are on the defensive. They are probably trying to find a weak spot in our defenses before advancing. That said…  
MAZIO!"

Lightning flew from Issei's arms, going for all three of the female devils in his direct view. Now expecting such magic, the women took a bit to try to avoid…

Not that it would do them any good. The Ma spell variants affect all considered opponents on the user's field of view, preventable only by distance or by getting out of sight before the damage is done. Having not seen anything like it before, and especially not having expected it from a human, the devils had no idea how to properly evade.

Hearing the screams of pain from their companions, the catgirls advanced on Mil-tan, trying their best to get past. One, the blue-haired one, went to punch in the face, expecting a broken nose, while the other, with red hair, went for a kick in the stomach. Either one was supposed to leave Mil-tan incapacitated.

Thus they were surprised when Mil-tan blocked them, the punch with an open-palm block and the kick by raising the knee. Not by the block in itself, since they were not that much faster than humans and Mil-tan despite everything did move like a trained fighter. But by the fact the block _worked_. Devils are stronger than humans, so at that strength the punch and kick should have broken the bones and, in the case of the punch, continued as if nothing got in the way.

Taking advantage of their surprise, Mil-tan twisted the arm of the punching catgirl, allowing a twist of the body and a kick breaking _the other catgirl's_ nose instead.

"Li", the punching one said in surprise as her sister went down. Only to be thrown on top of said sister.

Luckily for them, that wasn't enough to knock them retired.

"Mil-tan, focus on Asia. Leave these two to Murayama and Katase!"

Turning around to Issei and Asia, ignoring the two kendokas going past, Mil-tan saw _why_ Issei was so focused on Asia right now.

The three girls he was fighting were apparently focused in magic – more specifically in firing Dark-elemental spheres. Issei was trying his best to block the magics with his body since his armor was resistant to Darkness, but any strike that got past him…

…would do no good since so was hers, but they did not want to tip their hand in any way before it was needed.

With a nod, Mil-tan drew one of the guns that Issei said was from a stray exorcist he fought, and shot the maid with light brown hair, since she seemed to be the better with the shots, in the shoulder. Oh, as trained security Mil-tan knew that it wasn't like in movies, but a shoulder shot would probably easy for devils to heal with their magic, especially because—

"GYAAAH!"

—according to Issei they were filled with bullets that would be even more damaging to devils than Holy Water, and _that_ one hadn't been fun to watch.

Well, no human wanted to figure out what that felt like.

Back to the devils, while the others were still standing after a second Mazio, the shot one was retired.

 _Standing_ , but not well. Issei was not kidding when he claimed his specialty was magic. Even without much training, he still knew how to better convert the magical energy into damaging electricity.

Even so, he was good enough the sword he drew cut down one of the girls… in a way he hoped was non-lethal… Nah, they did not seem worried by Yuuto having swords on _that_ fight, so they probably were more than able to heal this.

Turning his head, he saw the other girl be easily knocked out by Mil-tan.

Behind him, judging by the sounds of swords being sheathed, the two catgirls were also defeated.

"And that makes eight Pawns," Issei commented under his breath. "Prepare yourselves, everyone. Phase 2 is coming!"

IIIII

Riser was thoughtful.

He just lost all of his remaining Pawns… something he already expected from the reports of Siris about how easily the first three were defeated.

But he wanted it more to find out what the five humans could do than for actual victory. As much as he wished otherwise, the Pawns were not on par with his other peerage members.

So, the leader could use magic. The big guy in a dress was a trained martial artist, and apparently had a gun with blessed bullets. The two girls with different shades of brown hair were sword wielders.

What does the blond one do? They seemed to have been protecting her, so she was a key part of their strategy even if a poor fighter.

"Siris, tell my sister she is to take your place as observer. As thus she will not be part of the battle, and will report to me immediately if you five are defeated."

"Riser-sama?" the woman replied, in a tone of voice that made it sound like Riser had struck her. He was quick to shake his head in an attempt to fix that.

"It is just a possibility. It is a fact that they are better than expected and did not use their full potential yet, after all. I'm still waiting for any sight of the familiars their leader made sure to make available for the game."

His listener appeased, he continued with his plan.

"Send Xuelan to fight the leader and Isabela to fight the big one. Xuelan's speed should allow her to avoid his magics and Isabela's brawling fighting style should be hard to follow for someone with martial training. You and Karlamine should focus on the swordwielders. Mihae should be your support."

As soon as his words escaped his mouth, Riser felt like he said something stupid. But, having no idea _what_ , he couldn't take his orders back…

As he reviewed his words, his orders always seemed to fit what they knew but his instincts always repeated that _something_ was wrong…

IIIII

They were reaching the end of the woods. Which worried Issei.

Sure, it wasn't _needed_ , but he was hoping they could finish more of the heavy hitters before being open to fire from above.

As soon as they reached about five meters to exit the woods, Issei raised his hand for them to stop.

"Guess this is it. Everyone, time for summoning."

He stood observing, as everyone but him and Asia summoned their… "familiars".

Theirs would be kept until they'd be better used.

He turned back to guide them out of the woods—

His experience and instincts were the only things that allowed him to roll with the punch. True, the Harmonizer would lower the damage, but it would only go from "potentially letal" to "this was a punch from an augmented martial artist with a style already specialized into giving more damage in one hit than you in five."

Well, he was used to those odds.

As soon as he stopped spinning he went to Katase, blocking the zweinhander with a vermilion spear. Following his cue, Mil-tan ordered the gremlin to use a Zio on the armored woman that was going for Murayama.

Karlamine was taken by surprise. She did not expect to be able to avoid electricity after it was sent, but the blue being that threw the lightning was so fast she would have thought it was a Knight too, making it impossible to get out of the way before the magic was launched.

Xuelan and Siris were in trouble. Xuelan was sure that if she could get one hit she would win… but that hit was not coming. As if used to dodging people with her speed, Issei was able to either avoid her strikes, or parry them with his lance.  
Siris was not doing much better. It seemed like Issei had experience against quicker opponents too, since he could predict where she was aiming for and block her sword with his spear every time she tried to go back to her original target. While said target had nothing stopping her from retaliating to both of them.

Issei felt in the zone. He was weaker and slower, but Katase was still no Isabeau either. The girl in the Qipao was strong, but only if she hit. The girl with the big blade was fast and powerful, but she telegraphed her movements due to the blade's size.

Karlamine was in trouble. The familiars Riser-sama had been worried about finally made their appearance, and they _were_ a reason to worry. Besides the one running circles around her (and throwing electricity at someone wearing _metal_ ), she had two more distractions, one that threw fire at her and another that threw air at high pressure. _And_ her original target, who despite having barely any chance of hitting her was at the exact right position to not let her avoid the magic strikes.

Isabela's grin almost split her face. She was expecting someone trained to fight other trained people, and thus who would underestimate her "style". Yet what she found was someone that yes, seemed to have training in things like Judo and Jiu-jitsu, but also had enough experience with bar brawls to see the order in her chaos.  
Of course, she couldn't help but watch Xuelan's target dance around her. Riser had thought he was a magic-user, but he was clearly like her, magic was just yet another kind of strike for him. While Knights were focused on speed and Rooks like her on striking once but hard, that guy seemed to use a mix of both, with speed for usual strikes but power for his magic when he got an opening. He was having trouble finding one right now, but his less-experienced partner seemed to be taking advantage of the ones _he_ opened for her.

Meanwhile, her opponent was of the strong and resilient kind, kind of like a proto-Rook. Made even more so by the small blonde healing him while they fought.

She was sure to lose with her there, but… she would have been at a clear advantage otherwise, with devil _and_ Rook strength against a human. She just _couldn't_ push herself to try to go for her.

And thus it finally happened. She was tiring and getting weaker while her opponent was constantly healed, so it was just a matter of time until she missed a strike. Her opponent instinctively answered with an uppercut.

She was down, and she knew it.

But she couldn't help but think how much better that person would be if became an _actual_ Rook.

Her last vision before retiring was of her opponent breathing heavily. So the healing was for damage, and not for stamina. That… somehow made her feel better for losing.

As the words "Riser's Rook was retired" echoed through the battleground, Issei nodded to Katase. The opponents would become more desperate now that they were outnumbered. Time for using their ace.

Xuelan was frustrated. Fighting this guy was like fighting Isabela, someone experienced in battle but without a proper style. This lack of style would usually result in openings, but the battle experience made up for it, resulting in a "personal style" that took a while to get used to.

But get used to she was doing, and one thing was made clear: her opponent was used to fighting even better.

She wasn't sure if sickness or an accident he still wasn't fully healed from, but the opponent's openings, real openings instead of attempts to draw their aim instinctually, were not result of their actions, but of him being used to moving faster and hitting stronger. From time to time she could see him holding back from doing a maneuver he clearly had experience but not the speed to do properly.

She wanted… she wanted to see how it would be to fight him at full power.

So distracted with her thoughts, she barely avoided the next cut from his teammate… and was distracted by something completely different.

The sword the girl was using was not a metal one anymore. It was an exorcist's light blade.

Her eyes widened. A cut from that blade would feel like being cut from a silver blade covered in holy water. Only the best exorcists were allowed to use them, and judging by the other swordwoman fighting Karlamine the team had _two_!

 _How?_

It was a shame, she was enjoying the battle, but that changed things. She quickly used her personal magic to cover her hands and feet in flames. Even if she was parried or evaded again, this time the heat would damage her opponent.

…That was the plan.

So she was _really_ surprised when her opponent simply ignored her flames, despite the closeness of her attack to his face, and went to push Siris back. Surprised enough she did not avoid the wind magic the other opponent, that until then was only using swords to attack, used on her to send her hard into a tree.

Katase wasted no time piercing the devil through her abdomen.

"Riser's second Rook was retired."

Siris narrowed her eyes. While she was trying to fight the leader, Karlamine was only still standing because of Mihae's protection lowering the electric damage, and the Rooks were both defeated.

The choice was obvious. Abandon the leader and go after his supports. First order of action, free Karlamine to help her.

As she attacked the leader one last time, she used his block to help her spin around him. His look of surprise was very satisfying.

On her path to free Karlamine, her first opponent was the dark-skinned familiar with a torch-like hat. She countered her flame attack by swinging her sword – a necessary technique to learn when serving a flame-using family, while most of the other fighters favored learning to use flaming themselves _they_ were not really immune to them, since they were not really members of the Phenex clan, so a way to counter opponents that took the bet was needed – and in the same movement spun and cut the familiar in a retirement-worthy cut in the abdomen.

The second familiar she reached, a small girl with lighter – but still dark – skin, attacked her with wind pressure. It felt like a punch from Xuelan, but she was used to that kind of damage, so she quickly jumped back in her direction, this time avoiding the magic and giving her a cut from hip to the opposite shoulder.

Her third target, however, was better suited for fighting a sword user, even if her attempt to block her attack with her own blade sent the human a few feet backwards from the impact.

No matter. That was the respite needed for Karlamine to be able to properly hit the blue specter throwing lightning at her.

Siris frowned. So those were the familiars that her master had been so preoccupied about? They had been a diversion, true, but far from the threat she had expected—

"Siris, watch out!"

At her companion Knight's voice, she jumped towards Karlamine, spinning around in the air. The bodies of the two girls she had defeated were… floating in the air…

And then, they disappeared amidst blue runes, as if they had been formed of those runes all along.

IIIII

Rias blinked, not noticing her mouth had fallen open. She was sure it wasn't so, but the only thing she could imagine seeing that was of a digimon when it was turned into data.

She wasn't far off.

IIIII

The two Knights prepared themselves as the energy of the two girls joined between them, solidifying into a third, new being. A man with androgynous face and long silver hair, wearing a blue form-fitting armor and wielding a lance.

"Welcome, Genma Tam Lin," sounded the voice of the human leader.

The man bowed to the leader, before doing the same to the two human swordswomen.

The leader nodded, and looked at the red gauntled in his arm.

"Would you look at that…" she could hear his mutter. "Tam Lin, we will start battling the two enemy swordwomen. Defeat the mage before joining us."

The mage… Mihae!

Siris jumped in the direction of the Bishop, only to be blocked by the leader's vermilion spear. She could only watch as Mihae's barrier was broken by a strike that, from the impact, should be at the strength of one from a Rook.

Their magical support… did not last long after that.

"Don't worry," Karlamine said. "The only reason they were lasting so long against me was because the blue familiar was about my speed and the others were distracting me. Now without it I doubt they can keep up with our speed."

"Mazio," the leader said simply with a burst of magical energy.

Siris could feel the energy covering everything around her, making it impossible for her to dodge no matter her speed. And then the shocks began, spreading through her body, although, being electricity, it was concentrated in her hands, which were holding tightly her metal blade. Griting her teeth – and hands – through the pain, she could just imagine how Karlamine, _wearing a metal armor_ , was feeling.

"Let us make a deal," the leader said.

Karlamine grit her teeth, insulted. "I will never betray Riser-sama!"

"Good for you," he replied without skipping a beat. "That has nothing to do with our deal."

The two Knights looked at each other, confused.

"You two may have noticed that you can't escape that spell. And to make matters worse, I imagine just one more hit like that and the armored one is retired.  
On the other hand, using it is a bit tiring.  
So, a deal where the more skilled wins: I won't use that magic again if you girls don't use your Knight speed to get past us and attack the others. Deal?"

Karlamine seemed like she was forced to eat a sour lemon, but she nodded. Siris did the same.

The very next second, the human and familiar charged, their spears prepared.

And Siris noticed the result was far from as clear cut as Karlamine expected even with that deal.

She wasn't sure how fast she could say the blue familiar had been, but this spearwielder was just as fast. And the blows she blocked felt like blocking a Rook. It was almost as if fighting that human once again, but this time being unable to block his strikes.

She needed a plan.

So she used one of his blocks to give her some momentum, like she did to escape the human earlier, but this time just to get some space between them.

The spearwielder sent a fireball at her.

It was weak, though. Much weaker than the ones from the dark-skinned woman that… somehow became him.

She smirked and advanced, her sword cutting the fire quickly and automatically. If she could attack him between the magics…

She was cutting the fire automatically. And thus only noticed how one of the magics was not an orange flame but a white light when her blade was already touching it.

"KYAAH!" she screamed, distracting Karlamine.

The armored swordwoman was trying – and failing – to use her speed to hit her opponent from behind, but as soon as she got there he was already dodging and swinging his spear in the direction she appeared.

And then she heard the scream, looking at her companion's direction for a split second.

More than enough time to be hit by the spear.

"Energy Drain", he said. He said it at every attack.

She took a step back, frowning. He was strong for a human, but that was much weaker than what she expected. All of those blocked attacks were.

He was proving to be a problem, though. She was already tiring from keeping her blade in flames, and it somehow felt like… like…

 _Energy Drain_.

Only now she noticed what he had been doing. As she was blocking and not evading, the magic was still hitting her, but subtle.

The bastard was using her to heal himself.

"So you noticed," he said. "Well, the last strike was a direct hit, so the extra damage was bound to."

"Don't feel so satisfied," Karlamine said. "So you tired me a little, so what. You may be able to use that magic more, but unless you are going to turn back on the deal—"

"Energy Drain also drains your vitality, not just your magical energy."

What.

"That means that, while doing less damage per strike, your body should feel like you were hit with another Mazio about now."

He… he was right. She didn't notice because of the fight, but her body was still aching, as if refusing to heal from that magic while it stopped hurting much earlier when attacked by the blue thing.

"Well, don't think you won just with that! Now that I know I can just avoid it, and you agreed not to do that electrical magic."

"Yes. I agreed not to use that electric area magic," he agreed. "But I said nothing about other area magics, and I don't think you'd be able to get up from my next one."

Her eyes narrowed. She advanced on him with all her speed.

"Mazan"

It was like he exploded. The impact felt like it was escaping from him in a sphere.

Her last thought before being retired was that it would have been better for her King if she had denied the agreement and taken the electric magic earlier. This way she wouldn't have recharged her opponent.

"Well this is just great," Siris said in a huff. So she was locked in battle agains a mix of a Rook and a Knight, and their attempt to avoid a magic that could counter their speed backfired something fierce. Now she was alone against—

"Well Tam Lin, we'll be going. Try to win, please. Lady, don't forget our deal."

The familiar snorted. Siris was confused.

"Just because I used the deal to my advantage, doesn't mean I don't follow the deal. The deal was you'd fight Tam Lin, so the deal goes until one of you defeat the other."

Siris could only look at him with her mouth open. "The deal was that we wouldn't try to get past _the two of you_."

The human leader sighed. "Ok, so I may use a bit of trickery, but I do follow a personal code. I consider myself a neutral in the lar and chaos axis. Right now we are at an advantage, and we can spare Tam Lin to give you a proper battle. _If_ you win—"

"She won't."

"Hush, Tam Lin. _If_ you win, you'll fight _me_."

"A bit of a downgrade, don't you think?"

The human leader just shrugged at his familiar's words.

Siris watched as the five humans left. Their leader… she did not remember the name, but she should find out. She wanted a proper battle with him someday.

As the humans departed, she could feel… whatever field it was that was lowering her improved devil strength and speed was gone. She was at full power once again! Now she just had to bring the human leader out of that field too and this time he'd have no chance!

She advanced at full speed against Tam Lin, ready to defeat him easily with her Knight speed.

He countered her easily, with just as high a speed.

He apparently was _also_ slowed and weakened by the field… And considering how he was just as fast and stronger than her within it… _And_ had some holy energy attack…

She couldn't help but groan.

"Well, all is not lost," she said under her breath. "I can at least keep him here instead of helping his team."

"That's the spirit, Knight," he said, in an oddly respectful tone considering how he had been acting earlier. "Now, show me your skills, and I'll show you why I am called the faerie knight."

IIIII

"Prepare yourselves. Now we are in the open and everyone remaining is a distance fighter," Issei reminded the others.

"Ise-san, are you sure he will be alright?" Asia asked, worried about the new demon made by fusing Pele and Nadja.

"Burroughs says so," he replied.

"While their supernatural nature means they are affected by the Harmonizer, devils are still not what it was made for," the gauntlet explained. "Genma Tam Lin, however, is. Now that we are far from them the field is affecting neither, they are both at their natural strength, and since they were evenly matched under it…"

"I see…"

IIIII

Riser nodded at his sister's descriptions of the battle. So their leader… No, he corrected himself, even if he misjudged him the human did deserve _some_ respect at least in his head, Hyoudou, really had some battle experience, not only enough to survive battle against both a Rook and a Knight – and unfortunately neither had been able to tell Ravel _how much_ experienced he was – but he was apparently also a magician.

The familiars were different, too. Two magic-focused ones that, after their defeat, merged into a physical-focused one. A physical-focused one that he deemed enough to fight a Knight by itself.

The two swordwielders seemed to him to be of no consequence, though. He had been hit by a blessed bullet from Hyoudou once, it seemed clear that they were simply armed by him. Same with the big guy in a dress…

Big guy in a dress who was able to defeat Isabela in hand to hand combat. Sure, under constant healing from the final one, but from what Ravel said he was still winded afterwards so the skill and strength were fully his.

And the last one… She used no magic, in fact seemed unable to fight, but had healing abilities… Was she being protected like that because she was their healer? Made sense, but…

But in human culture, isn't the healer usually…

His eyes widened. She was a healer, they had a barrier that weakened devils, and they had a supply of Holy Water in those guns…

She was a member of a clergy? Seemed like a leap in logic, but… they seemed to be going in a straight line and in a group, but not at _him_ , but at _the pool_. If she was a member of the clergy and could bless water…

…well, if he was wrong it's not like it wouldn't be a good demoralizer for them.

"Yubelluna, I think I know what their next actions are going to be. Do you think destroying the whole pool and being able to keep fighting would be above your abilities?"

"I… am not sure, master. I can destroy the building easily, but the pool inside would be harder for me."

Riser tsk'd. The pool itself was the probable goal, not the building. If the water stayed it'd still be able to be blessed even if filled with debris. And Yubelluna _ex_ plodes things with powerful fire magic, so would there even be any debris?

"Uhm, nii-san, what if one of us melts a bit of metal and drops it there? The Leidenfrost effect would make the pool explode itself, wouldn't it?"

Riser blinked. He… what _was_ this Leidenfrost thing? He was many things, but not studious like his sister.

"When you throw something heated too much past water's boiling point into it, the water explodes. Supposedly it is because of it," Ravel explained.

"'Supposedly' because of it, but that it explodes is a fact?"

"Yes, onii-sama!"

"Hmm…"

IIIII

"What… what is he doing?" Murayama asked, watching as Yubelluna opened a small opening on the ceiling of the internal pool's building while Riser charged what looked like a yellow fireball in his hand.

"Hopefully misjudging the distance," Issei answered. "Everyone down, now!"

"Misjudging the…" then she remembered a story their chemistry teacher told them, of _one_ drop of molten metal falling into a puddle and causing an explosion that blew the ceiling of the factory.

She _threw_ herself to the floor, pulling Katase with her as Mil-tan and Issei covered Asia.

Soon after, the building exploded.

"…Good thing we had a plan _**C**_ in case this happened…"

IIIII

"Onii-sama!" Ravel said as her brother landed on the rooftop, her voice filled with guilt.

"Don't worry," he said, a bit of anger at his voice but not directed at her. "It worked a bit too well, but it did work. Good to keep in mind for next time."

He then pulled out a piece of wood that had pierced his leg, while Yubelluna, who was scared but apparently unhurt, helped by removing a piece of metal from his other arm.

"Yubelluna, are you alright?"

"Yes, Riser-sama. I am sorry, I should have been the one to—"

"Then you'd be retired," he countered bluntly. "It was _my_ blunder. Are we clear?"

She nodded.

"Good, then it is time for you to go. You may be at a disadvantage, but they can only act from the ground… unless they got a flying familiar," he finished with a frown.

"Yes, Riser-sama."

"Ravel, this is your turn to act too," he continued. "But I need you to be careful, because I need you to use Yubelluna's actions as a distraction."

IIIII

Rias watched with her eyes shining, yet filled with worry. The mirth from Riser exploding himself was countered by the pool being destroyed.

"Rias-sama, did you not pay attention to their conversation?" her Queen Akeno asked. "It was mentioned that there was a plan _C_ , 'in case this happened', meaning they still have a strategy planned for if the pool was destroyed. And yet another."

"Yes Akeno, but Plan B is only the better one because it is used when Plan A fails."

"But the fact there was a Plan C meant they expected it to fail enough to have more of them anyway."

Rias just pouted. So she didn't understand their plan from the start. But if that wasn't the plan, what was the plan she'd "never have thought of due to being a devil"?

IIIII

"…I wish we had horses," Issei said. "Then this scene would be perfect."

"I wish we could fly like the devils," Mil-tan countered. "Then we could be at battle-ready but relaxed flying poses like her.

"Eh, you are a magical girl, I am a samurai."

Yubelluna blinked. "That buff guy is a magical girl?"

"In the heart. We are still working on body thing!" Issei countered.

IIIII

Ajuka Beelzebub ignored Serafall Leviathan's look. They were there because they knew Sirzechs was going to do something stupid to save his sister, not to add "magical girls" to Serafall's tv show or, even worse from the look of things, give him work to create a real one.

He ignored her.

He ignored her.

…

"You know you want to find out how to do it."

Damn it. She had him by his weakness: science.

IIIII

"So… is there any reason you are standing in front of us in the air and not attacking by surprise?"

"Besides you guys knowing I was here all along?" she countered.

"Yes, besides that," Issei replied. "We both know you could make big enough explosions to catch us all before most of us could hit you back."

Issei gave no sign of the girls poking his back for him to shut up.

"You were watching our battle with Gremory's peerage," she said. It was not a question, so Issei said nothing. "So you know how my bomb works – it is still fire magic, only a different use of it. And our scout couldn't help but notice you were _not_ uncomfortable when facing weapons covered with flames, almost as if you had a way to protect yourself from flames. I thought it best not to try my luck against your protections so soon."

"Oh? Shame." For _her_. Issei _would_ be affected by her explosions, actually. His protections are not actually from _fire_ , but from _heat_ , and while her explosions would produce it the impact would come from _force_ , something his armor held no real protection from.  
And Asia's… He completely forgot about Yubelluna when giving her that armor that was _weak to force_ …

Oh well. Luck was part of every battle. And he was being very lucky today.

"That said, Master Riser's flames are on a different level of even my explosions. And his strength is on a different level. Your group—"

"When I reach Riser, I'll fight him one-on-one. The other four won't do anything during our battle."

"Very well, _you_ stand no chance against him."

"We'll see. Not the first to say that, probably not the last."

"Also, I think you mean 'the other _three_ '."

"KYAAH!"

Turning around, they see a blond girl, with drill-like pigtails and wings of fire, flying away with Asia.

Preparing himself to fire a Hama at the girl, he is pushed down by Mil-tan, just in time to let the powerful fire spell explode past him.

"Asia!" Issei yelled, "can you summon your familiar or do you want me to?"

"I'm sorry! I'm trying, but…"

"Say no more!"

Issei pointed to somewhere ahead of Asia and the fire-winged girl, and a magic circle appeared... and from there, a being that surprised all devils watching appeared.

IIIII

"An angel?" Rias said, somehow not as surprised as she should be.

"Her wings are different, though," Akeno pointed out. "Not dark as a Fallen, but not white as a normal Angel either. Teal wings… Wonder what that means…"

IIIII

"Master, should I summon the other one now too?"

"Not now, Burroughs," Issei answered. "Let's keep it for if we _really_ need it."

Worried for her master's sister, Yubelluna decided to ignore Issei and the other humans and focus on the Angel.

The Queen was fast, sending explosions left and right. The angel tried her best to avoid them and fire the Light attacks back, but the explosions were clearly giving her trouble.

The humans ran towards the school, both to save Asia and for Issei to get high enough his magic could reach them. He doubted even his strongest demon right then, Jack Frost, could hit the two flying devils from the ground.

Thus everyone was relieved when a spear flew from the ground, hitting the Queen's wing in a way that caused her to fall down.

"Took your time, Tam Lin," Issei said, firing at the fallen Queen with a Hama and ignoring the surprised "what" coming from Riser in the distance.

"What can I say, she was good in a fair fight," the Genma replied. He then looked at the furious devil he downed. "And something makes me think _this_ is going to be a much harder one."

Angel flew lower, approaching the group. "Shouldn't you be trying to rescue Asia?" Issei asked.

"She told me to come help you first."

Issei sighed. He couldn't blame the angel for obeying Asia since she was her familiar first, but it was still frustrating.

"Alright. You two deal with her then, and meet with us after you are done. We are going to the school roof."

"Do you really think that—" Yubelluna started saying, but having to avoid Light magic from _three_ sources quickly silenced her.

"That you'll be too occupied to stop us? Yes I do."

IIIII

Riser cursed. Three confirmed Holy Magic users. And judging from the speed of Yubelluna compared to before, and Ravel's flight speed, either the Nun doesn't need to be close for the humans to make that weird field or they all had an artifact creating it.

But at least he now had their healer, and Yubelluna was taking care of two of the Holy Magic users.

He did his best pose as he heard the steps approaching. It was his moment of victory, and he better look his best for the audience.

At his side stood a trembling… Asia, was it, and behind her Ravel stood as a guard.

As they approached, the footsteps slowed down, until they became a decisive walk.

The door opened.

"Riser Phenex," Issei said.

"Hyoudou Issei," Riser replied. "I'll be honest, I did not expect you to get this far."

"Not the first time I hear this line. So, am I to assume you are going to use Asia as a hostage to make me yield?"

"It was tempting," Riser admitted, "but despite you getting here you must be tired, and without your healer you stand no chance of lasting against my regeneration."

Issei shook his head. "Using Asia's Sacred Gear was never the plan. _Media_!"

As Issei said that, the visible damage on all of his teammates, including Asia, started healing at high speed.

Riser's eye twitched. "If she is not your Holy Energy user, and she is not your Healer… _Why_ were you protecting her so much?"

Issei shrugged. "She's just that cute, I guess."

Riser had to resist the urge to grind his teeth.

"Well, now that we are here, I challenge you to a duel!"

"…We are at a Rating Game!"

Issei nodded. "Yes, I am aware. But let's be honest, the only advantage you have right now is that Asia is captured. While it would be easy for me to win—"

"Ha! As if!" Riser said, insulted.

"…I don't want to just win. I want to _punch your face in_."

Riser's eyebrows rose. "Oh?"

"No one from either peerage interferes. Including familiars. Just me and you."

Riser's smile rose. "I accept. It is perfect to show you what you are really fighting against."

Issei's answer was a punch to Riser's face.

Riser did not dodge, nor did he lose his smile. The reason was clear when the broken nose quickly fixed itself in front of the humans' eyes.

It _did_ falter a bit, though, when _Issei_ started smiling.

"Ah good, you'll be just a good punching bag as I hoped…"

"Do you _really_ think you can defeat my regeneration?" Riser asked, in an insulted tone.

Issei nodded. "I just need to either damage you more than you can regenerate at once, or fight for longer than you can keep regenerating."

"Nice thought. But that's impossible." Riser _burst in flames_ , covering the area around him in them, including Issei.  
He then drew even more flames into his hand, making it glow oreange, and punched Issei as hard as he could.

Issei quickly bent backwards and slapped his punch aside, making Riser fall down on his own face.

"Cute. My turn. _Bufula_."

Riser's eyes widened as he was lifted from the ground by the spike of ice that grew under him and pierced his abdomen.

"Energy Drain."

He then was _slapped in the face_!

He was pretty sure he hated this human.

IIIII

It was official. Riser Phenex absolutely _loathed_ Hyoudou Issei.

The human seemed to be immune to his flames, and experienced enough at fighting hand-to-hand that even with his mevil speed and strength they were almost evenly matched, Riser's advantage being minimal.

Oh sure, he had his regeneration… but the human's draining magic was being used _all the time_ , and the only way to not be drained meant not being there when it hit… which usually left him open for another ice spike through the body. Thankfully he was good enough to avoid it gong through his head.

Physically, he was fine. But he was running out of energy, and without energy his regeneration would eventually slow down… and the human's energies were being replenished by _his_. _And_ apparently his body, judging by how the black eye he had given him healed after some doses of the spell.

 _But_! He had a plan. All he had to do was distract the human enough he wouldn't be able to evade.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked while once more throwing a punch, which was quickly blocked and countered. "Why are you stopping the progress of devilkind? You seemed to be friendly enough with Gremory."

"It is _because_ I consider Gremory a friend…" Issei started, before pausing. "No, that's wrong. I'd have done the same had she not being a friend, or a human or whatever. She doesn't deserve to be forced into marriage with someone she doesn't want."

"Pathetic sentimentality, then."

Issei shrugged. "I am human. That's what we do."

"Even you humans should be able to see how much this marriage benefits the whole devilkind!" Riser insisted. "She may not like the idea for now, but sacrifices have to be made—"

It was then, when Issei's eyes focused onto his filled with _actual_ hatred, that he found out he said something wrong.

The red gauntlet that seemed to be made of dragon scales that covered his white one did _not_ make him feel any better.

" _ **Now you have done it!**_ " Issei yelled. He abandoned all traces of subtlety, strategy and fighting style, just jumped Riser, knocking him on the ground, and started punching his face.

"You dare… _you_ dare talk to me about sacrifice?" he said while punching, tears falling from his eyes. "Someone who is losing nothing while the other side loses everything?"

He raised Riser and rammed their bodies on the wall to the stairs, his voice a mix of pain and hatred. "I did not fight for so long," **punch** , "saw so many people die," **punch** , "killed three of my best friends with my own hands," **punch** , "for what I believed was right, " **punch** , "just to let an overconfident, " **punch** , "spoiled" **punch** , "asshole" **punch** , "who had everything handed to him" **punch** , "take the freedom of someone" **punch** , "of who they want to be with" **punch** , "just to have a new warm body in their bed" **punch** , "under the excuses of being the better for their kind!"

He threw Riser to the ground and began stomping on his face. "In my eyes you are nothing more than a rapist, and you are lucky this is a public battle so all I'm allowed to do is punch your fucking face in—"

 _That_ was when Riser stroke.

"Issei!" was what all his teammates screamed, as the line of blood appeared in his chest.

"Don't worry, he will be healed after being retired," Riser said as he stood up. "Guess I was right though. You had great protection against flames, but not against our _other_ elemental mastery, _wind_."

He stepped on Issei's throat, making him unable to speak and, more important, breath well enough to cast his spells.

"You had a very passionate speech there. Under light of your real opinion of me, I must compliment your self-control. But arranged marriages are a tradition of our culture, and I'm sure you just offended lots of people on high places."

"Fuck… them… and fuck… your… traditions…"

Riser had nothing more to say, so he punched Issei's head to the ground until he was retired and teleported away.

But his words… his mind went to his sister Ravel. How would he feel if it was _her_ being forced to marry someone else? Someone she loathed as much as Gremory seemed to loathe him?

He always thought it was just because the choice was being taken from her, it was being taken from him too… but Hyoudou thought his actions made it seem like he was some kind of rapist. How his _his bride_ really think of him? As a person, and not as a fiancé?

Was he… was he really in the right here?

IIIII

For making a valid Rating Game, even with weird rules regarding familiars as this one, the members of the two "peerages" must be assigned a value, based on chess pieces. Although it was made for competitions between devils, rules were always made for the eventuality other races could join someday.

The rules are not needed to be explained right now. The fact is, every team had an equivalent for making the rules work the same way. It wouldn't do to give a devil team a disadvantage due to the other team not losing when their King is retired, after all.  
Issei had even covertly added all the familiar demons to Pawn pieces when doing the preparations, not that Riser was aware. So, as far as the system was concerned, familiars of the human team were Pawns, Asia was a Bishop, and...

So distracted on his thoughts during his victory over Issei, Riser did not notice the announcement claiming Issei's retirement said… Issei was their _Queen_.

Thus he was completely surprised when the remaining fighters _drenched_ him in Holy Water with their water guns.

Trying to resist the pain of the acid-like water over his skin, his regeneration taking all of his remaining energy to counter its holy energy, Riser had no way to free himself from the big hands that lifted him. The next words from the male voice did make him realize what happened, though:

"As Elvis would say, Hail to the King, baby."

The next thing he knew, his back felt like it was breaking. Remembering the appearance of the other team's real King, it probably did.

"Riser Phenex's King was retired. The Human team was victorious."

IIIII

Oh.

Devils had fixed team members.

Issei had been the leader through the whole battle until his defeat.

Everyone expected the leader to be the King.

No Devil would ever consider such a tactic. Even if it was the sixth of the Thirty Six Stratagems, making him focus his forces on a different point to open a weakness on the target.  
Asia herself seemed to have been the twenty-ninth, making her appear more useful for them than she was. Even making Mil-tan protect her made Mil-tan seem less important than really was.  
Hell, for most of the battle the thirty second was used. Making such a huge deal of familiars and magical items when making the agreement made Riser expect them at any time, when the familiars were used sparingly, and the most magical item used was the gauntlet.  
Taking a closer look, the twenty-fifth, changing the rules of how things were used to cause confusion, was the basis of everything.

And to make things worse… Rias was sure Issei had just imagined them naturally. He was, without a doubt, a natural source of chaos and spanner-in-the-work…ness…

She wasn't thinking her best right then.

…Who cares right then about the plans anyway? She had someone to thank for saving her freedom!

IIIII

The hare ran. Ran as fast as it could, for death would be a release if caught. If it could not draw _her_ attention away from itself.

Its long ears twitched, picking the sounds of wings. It seemed like a few fairies were unfortunate enough to try hunting for food on the same area he was running from _her_. It guessed it was its fault, any other people that were on the way that could send a warning were used as a distraction just like it was going to use them.

As it ran between the confused fae, its ears picked on the fact the constant skipping stop.

It ran. Ran from the results of its actions. Ran from the being that was following it.

"Hello. Would you like to be my friends?"

The hare heard the sounds of her sweet voice as it ran, hoping to never be the one Hare of Inaba to meet her again. As far as it knew, only them, her uncles and her equals were able to survive near the blue-skinned girl whenever she released her power.

"Oh, thank you. But… you are alive. That is a bit of a problem…"

Kill or be killed, as food or playthings. Such was the life in this nexus-like post-apocalyptic world.

"Would you please Die For Me?"

IIIII

 **You see, there was a reason Issei was using a** **lan— spear.**

 **Bet everyone forgot Issei stole Freed's exorcism weapons not just once but twice.**

 **Acording to Wikipedia, "Holy Water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure". While Rias' thoughts about Asia would work if she was still a nun, she is not anymore, and is not even considered a Holy Maiden anymore either, making her unqualified.**

 _ **Her Angel**_ **, on the other hand, is a** _ **very**_ **well-known religious figure, even if it is not a real member of the Angel Faction. In fact, the very reason it is shaped like an angel is because angels are religious figures.**

 **Tam Lin, as of right now, has the following skills: Hama, Gram Slice, Agi, Dia, Posumudi and Healing Knowhow**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this. I had an initial plan, then the ways Riser could see through it, and then made Issei having thought of those drawbacks and planned for them. This is the final plan I went through:**

 **Plan A-1: use Holy Water to reach the pool, bless the pool's water, use Mazan to throw the water on the devils.  
Plan B-1: devils notice Plan A, waste resources trying to destroy pool before we reach there. Plan A will be converted to bless the water remaining in the pipes. Possibility of using Bufu spells to make Ice Holy Water Missiles?  
Plan C-1: just bless a faucet to recharge we Super Soakers. If it is even needed.**

 **Plan A-2: use Asia as (voluntary) bait, all enemy attacks will be focused on her thus allowing group to know where they are aiming for.  
Plan B-2: if Asia disagrees or is retired, Issei shall be the bait. He got some healing skills and the real maker of Holy Water is Angel. His experience will also extend his survival. Avoid this plan to avoid getting Issei tired too early.**

 **Plan A-3: avoid summoning the demons until all Pawns are defeated. Avoid summoning Angel until Yubelluna goes for the attack or reaching the pool to use her to bless the water. Avoid summoning Jack Frost until fighting Riser or Yubelluna. If both Pele and Nadja are defeated, Fusion Lite them into Tam Lin (permission from the girls already acquired).  
Plan B-3: first to use a demon before the appointed time pays for everyone's pizza next time instead of splitting the cost.**

 **Plan A-4: Issei fights Riser one-on-one. Energy Drain keeps him fighting, Hama overcomes Riser's healing, armor makes him immune to Riser's fire.  
Plan B-4: drench Riser in Holy Water. Harmonizer and Holy Water will keep the fight fairer. Don't forget the badass last line before finishing Riser.  
Plan C-4: say the badass last line after victory. It should be said. But only if without Issei, because else it loses impact.**

 **Of course, things don't always go according to plan, as you can see by the fact Jack Frost was never summoned and the Holy Water was never refueled.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I admit the battles themselves were not the best, I was focusing more on the strategy and dialogue.**

 **Also, hope I made Riser seem like not as much but still an asshole. In the novels he… not exactly befriends but still helps Issei later, so had to make some groundwork here for in case something similar happens.**


	8. Rating Game Aftermatch

**Sorry for taking so long… At first it was because I wasn't taking my meds properly and depression was hitting me hard again, then I started having Mastery classes, and also started working on a personal indie game to sell.**

 **So, yeah… sorry. This chapter will feel a bit rushed in parts, but that's because I'm still regaining my writer's edge. I personally consider myself a better writer while depressed, weird as it may sound.**

 **For example, this chapter in itself went in many completely different directions regarding Rias' family.**

 **From bellow here, the author's note was written some time ago.**

 **IIIII**

 **I got a complaint about last chapter. That Issei was too weak, that even out of shape he should have defeated Riser easily. That Issei had been 'nerfed' to add some drama.**

 **That… was the opposite of what I expected.**

 **After all, not only is Issei in the best shape he ever had (although I understand the confusion, with the fighters of Riser's peerage being confused by him fighting like he was used to Flynn's more trained body), he only used** _ **Twice Critical**_ **, near the end of the fight at that, while canon Issei used Balance Breaker.**

 **Someone else said it was weird how Issei flipped out with Riser's words (based on the words he said in the canon battle)… I don't see it as weird myself, in fact I'd think it has been a long time coming.  
Issei has been back in his body for months… but it's not like he can go to a psychologist and tell he had seven years (canon time according to SMTIVA) of another life where he fought in a war against the forces of both Heaven and Hell. And he tried to join his peers (with reasonable success – he is currently not speaking much with the other two of the Perverted Trio) but he is always paranoid about when the barrier between worlds will open.  
He had been simmering for a while, he just needed a reason to boil.**

 **That said, maybe his internal dialogue in previous chapters didn't show enough of his erratic thoughts. I'll have to work on it for the future.**

IIIII

He was on a boat. In his hands was a fishing pole.

He… well, he wasn't the best, but could survive with what he could catch. Issachar, on the other hand, was great at it…

"Hey Flynn," said the other person on the boat, his brown clothes in very close tones to his hair.

"Issachar?" Issei asked, looking away from the line of his fishing rod on the water.

Issachar said nothing for a while, as if concentrated on his own fishing. Then looked at Issei, a confused tone on his voice.

"…Who are you? Where is Flynn?"

IIIII

He blinked. That was all he did.

And the world turned into fire.

Fire all around. The sky was fire, the ground was fire. The air in front of him was fire.

As in, actual fire, not _on_ fire. He went to Infernal Tokyo, he knew the difference.

" **Did you?"** a cavernous voice asked, sounding ancient like civilization itself.

Issei turned around, trying to find the source of the voice.

" **Who are you?"** the voice asked, weirdly in a worried tone. **"Do you even remember?"**

Issei opened his mouth to answer. "I am! …I am…"

His eyes opened wide. Who was he? He was going to say Flynn, but that isn't right.

What is his name? What is his name?

Who is he?

IIIII

Issei's eyes opened.

"Ah, right… I'm not Flynn…" he reminded himself, angry at the thought.

He… was doing better than expected. According to Buroughs he was around level 17, while the Phenex had been around level _2_ 7\. Judging from the battles he had and the strength of demons, it wasn't exactly a small difference.

But he was doing well. Better than he expected, actually… until Riser ran his mouth. He wasn't sure if the other guy wanted to enrage him and make him sloppy or actually thought his words would convince him… he doubted it was his intention making him go berserk like that, though.

The problem was… that he went berserk at all.

He had the memories of Flynn from when he first wore the Gauntlet, maybe even a bit before. But… that was it. Memories of Flynn. He trained as much as he could, but his movements did not flow as naturally as the samurai's.

But… he now noticed, he was having trouble distinguishing himself from the Champion… The physical and magical skills were easy, but the memories themselves…  
He barely knew Issachar himself…

Hell, he had been at most a watcher of everything, thinking about it. Did… did he even know _any_ of them? Isabeau, Jonathan, Walter… "Ouch!"

He looked to the side his cheek was being pinched from, meeting Alice's serious eyes.

"You're thinking too loud," she said.

"Oh, sorry."

"And you are also thinking too much. And you are wrong."

Issei looked at her in confusion.

"You _were_ there. That guy you were talking about may have been a stranger to you, but the other two were not. And I doubt the other you would have been able to do half as much without you there to push him forward."

"But—"

She put her finger in his mouth, stopping his protests.

"I chose _you_ to be my onii-chan, remember? I was there. I was there with both Flynn and you, and in the end I decided I liked you more. Not Flynn.  
I can see souls, onii-chan. I could see _your soul_ and decided I liked how it felt more than the other. Why would I do that if it had really all been the other you and this you were not there all along?"

Issei smiled, and then Alice yelped as he quickly pulled her into a hug. "How did you become so smart?"

Alice gave a sad smile over his shoulder. "I may still be ten in body and mind, but I lived for centuries, and through many versions of the universe. But you are one of the three people I remember that treated me as their child. Most others fear me… they point me at something they want dead, but they don't _feel_ like they love me like their child…"

She pulled out of the hug, and grabbed Issei's face, looking him in the eye. "You _care_ for me. You care for all of us in a way few humans ever cared after recruiting us, even the ones that aren't human anymore. Remember when you fell in battle and we kept fighting for you? That's why. We would have left most other summoners. I _maybe_ would have left _Flynn_ if he was by himself. But he wasn't.  
I can't say about the others, but my loyalty is to Hyoudou Issei, not Flynn."

Issei didn't know what to say… so he just closed his teary eyes and kissed Alice's forehead.

"Oh and onii-chan, what was that red thing that covered your Gauntlet when you got angry? It made you get so strong, it felt like if you had used Luster Candy!"

Issei blinked at that, looking her in the eyes.

"What red thing?"

IIIII

Riser Phenex was… not having a good time right now.

He _really_ needed to have a talk to Hyoudou Issei. Not just about his words.

Unfortunately, ditching all of his peerage apparently was not enough to show the people at his door he had no desire to do anything but _talk_.

"Well, then I guess we are at an impasse, because I refuse to leave without talking to him in private" Riser said, resisting the urge to fix his hair. He was already at the bad side of the people there, he couldn't afford to make any more bad impressions. Not that there was much chance of doing a good one, since the main person glaring at him was Rias, who hated him anyway.

"And why should we trust you alone with him?" she asked, hostility clear in her voice. "He may have not being the King, but we all know he is the reason you lost."

"Because I am a Phenex," Riser answered, resisting the urge to sneer. "And unlike you, apparently, my family's honor means something to me."

"Yeah right," she said, crossing her arms, and Riser had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "And your little collection of girls shows it so much…"

"You talk as if harems weren't common among devilkind, Gremory," Riser replied, irritated. "You know what, if it'll make you let me talk with him I'll let you go with me, but only if you promise you'll stay quiet while we talk."

She didn't answer, so he decided to sweeten the deal. "And after our talk is over I'll have no reason to stay in your way."

"Fine," she spat, and knocked on the door.

IIIII

"Enter," Issei said, not dismissing the small red gauntlet that covered not much past his hand. Whatever it was, it was made public during the battle anyway.

In a way, he expected Rias to come sooner or later. A quiet and respectful Riser was a surprise, though.

And it was Riser that made the first comment, too.

"Ah, a Twice Critical, that explains how you got stronger than me in the middle of the battle. Too bad for you you were too angry to use it properly."

Issei shrugged. "You were stronger than me before and I was winning too."

"We were tied."

"You were tiring. My magic was healing me just as fast as you healed yourself but was also absorbing your energy. It was just a matter of time."

Riser snorted, but didn't contest it.

Instead…

"You said some pretty interesting things while you were out of it, by the way."

"Oh?"

"First, the one that matters to present company," he said, motioning Rias with his head. "Apparently my desire to be married to Gremory here as soon as possible instead of just waiting makes me a rapist."

Issei waits a bit, gathering his thoughts. "Yes, it kinda does. Or at least the way you went through it."

Riser crosses his arms, but Issei prevents him from continuing. "I am aware that arranged marriages are a tradition that is probably still in effect in your society, and maybe even your parents were married this way. But Rias was clearly against being married to you and looking for any legal way she could not do so, and yet you kept forcing her."

Riser snorted at that. "It was an agreement between our families. I guarantee you, my personal opinion of Rias is that she is a spoiled brat whose only personal good is her body, and in our interactions she never gave me a reason to think otherwise."

"And judging from the one interaction I was present at, it is no wonder," Issei countered.

Riser looked around, clearly thinking his words properly. "I… apologize for my behavior towards you. I admit I was out of line, and my peerage admonished me properly in private afterwards. I was not in a good mood at the time and took it out on you. But put yourself in my shoes. I was already having a bad day, the one I am supposed to marry keeps acting like it is only a chore to her and acts like my charm techniques – that I assure you conquered all of my peerage members but my sister – are more of an annoyance, and then, when I go to one more time try to convince her to quit stalling and just get this over with… you blast me with a fire extinguisher."

"…Please tell me you were not trying to use your charm when I was there. Because you sounded more like a condescending flaming peacock."

"So you mentioned then. But you are not a woman I am trying to woo."

Issei then pointed to Rias. "She didn't think so either."

Riser dismissed her presence. "Yes, that is one of the sources of my annoyance whenever I meet her."

Issei lifted his hand, asking the other man to stop. "Riser, please tell me… were any of the girls besides Rias outright hostile to you?"

"No! Why would they be?"

"Well, Rias was. Because she already didn't like the idea of marrying you even before you tried to 'use your game' on her, which probably inverted its effect. Especially since you already have a harem of girls."

Riser thought about it, then shrugged. "Well, I didn't like her personality much either. And while I have a harem, it's not like it is a rare thing among high-class devils."

Issei could see Riser did not figure out what he did wrong. So he went for another tactic.

"Riser, you have a sister, don't you?"

"Yes, Ravel. She is one of my Bishops."

"Well, imagine that Ravel is under a marriage contract but dislikes it."

"Alright, I'll humor you."

"Now imagine that your sister met the person she is contracted to, and besides also disliking the contract she also disliked the person she is being forced to marry to, no matter how good-looking he is."

"Well, as I said, so did I."

"Now, try to ignore the fact I am clearly using you as an example. Ignore the fact he may also dislike this, because as far as you know he never made that clear to either you or her.  
Imagine that, as far as you and your sister know, someone she is being forced to marry against her will is touching her in ways she dislikes, being overly-affectionate despite her telling him to stop and trying to convince her to marry him faster every time they meet. And just a reminder, in the contract it is said that your sister has to remain a virgin, yet you know that the guy had many lovers on the side and has no shame or makes any attempt of hiding it.  
Because it doesn't matter how _you_ felt, _this_ is what everyone else saw."

Riser just looked at Issei for a while, making him think his words were ignored if not for the reddening of his face.

Finally, Riser gave a suffering sigh. "The asshole wouldn't survive for long if I saw much of that.  
I see your point. I definitely should have handled things _much_ better."

Issei shrugged. "Well, either way the contract was broken, so if you really disliked it…"

"Yes, yes. But… that isn't the only thing I wanted to talk to you about what you said.  
You mentioned you made sacrifices. You fought as if someone much more experienced than your age. And your eyes remind me too much of war veterans. Yet, you are clearly human, and too young.  
Are you a reincarnation?"

"What?" Issei couldn't help to be surprised.

"They say the best way to know someone is from fighting them," Riser explained. "And I am a Phenex, named after the creature of Rebirth, so I know reincarnations are possible.  
So, are you?"

Issei thought about what to say. In truth, he wished to deny it. But Riser got to his conclusions properly, and he respected that he wanted to ask it in private.

"In a way," he replied, getting a nod from Riser and a gasp from Rias. "I have the memories of seven years in the life of a samurai, in which he fought both supernatural beings and, unfortunately, fought and killed three of his friends due to being on different sides at a war."

"I won't ask more," Riser said. "But I hope you are aware, you are more than likely suffering from associating too much of your current life and your past one. That can be useful, like in most of our battle, but as the ending proved it can also be an Achilles' Heel due to you not having the self-control your past self developed.

And… I am pretty sure you must be suffering from some kind of PTSD, from your behavior when I mentioned sacrifices. The stress that was being held back just got released. The problem is, we are lucky it was done during battle, you had a contingency plan to let your comrades survive said battle, and the target of your release was someone with regeneration enough to survive."

Issei did not answer, but his expression made it clear he did not think of all of that. Ad, now that he did, he did not like what he was imagining.

"Look, I'm no psychologist, I may be wrong. But you _need_ to consult one, sooner or later. You may be a danger to others if you don't."

He took a wallet from his jacket, slowly and under the eyes of both Issei and Rias, and took a paper card from it, offering it to Rias.

"I'm offering the services of one under the service of my family, since as I said we are the ones with more experience on your kind of problem. Think of it as an apology for my behavior towards you."

Now waiting for an answer, Riser left the room, leaving Rias behind.

"That… was not the conversation I expected to have with him," Issei let out, more to himself than to Rias.

"I know," Rias confessed back. "I still don't like him and am more than glad the marriage was canceled, but maybe now I could see him as a semi-decent person if we ever had to be near each other again."

"Hmm," was all Issei could say to that. Riser was the most responsible for the broken bridges, but now that they had a proper conversation he could see he could be a decent person in other circumstances.

"Well, congratulations on being single and free," Issei said with a shrug. Sure, he was the responsible for it in a way, but he just couldn't not do anything.

He and Flynn were helping people left and right, even before Masakado needed them to. Old habits die hard.

"Actually, I'm kinda… not yet," Rias confessed. "You see, when you decided to challenge Riser, you kinda took his place."

Issei just looked at her. Blinked once. Blinked twice.

Then grabbed the pillow on the bed, put it over his face and tried to smother himself.

"Hey, it's not so bad, is it?" Rias asked, offended.

Lifting the pillow a bit, Issei looked her in the eye. "I wanted to free you from this, not take his place."

Rias huffed, but understood his point. "Well, unless you take his place, I'm free to the market until I am an adult. So unless you want to let it all go to waste…"

"This all happened because you were being forced into it. And I think we made it pretty clear your opinion about this. Do you really think your parents will try it again?"

"They don't have much of a choice, or at least they say they don't" Rias shook her head. "We are the heads of the Gremory clan, but that's what it is, a _clan_. My parents have to think of the clan in general, not just me. I tried my best to convince him there was another way with Riser but …"

Issei nodded. He wasn't a fan of this, but he could see where they were coming from.

"Don't worry too much about it," Rias said with a smile. "We can just add a few concessions in the contract that claim that the marriage will only happen when we are both adults and add some clauses that let us cancel it after that if we are not happy with marrying. By then I'll be free to deal with contracts on my own. As far as we are concerned, it'll all be just a paper we don't need to care much for."

Issei nodded. "I can accept that, I guess."

"Great," Rias said, beaming. "I'll tell my father you agreed. We'll meet later to go over the contract properly."

Issei nodded, and the girl left.

Oh well, if it was just a stopgag until she could deal with it herself, and not an actual contract, what was the problem?

IIIII

As soon as the door closed, Rias pumped her fist, determination clear on her face.

She would make sure that Issei would _not_ want to use the escape clauses, or her name was not Rias Gremory!

She ignored the people looking at her as if she was doing something crazy. She had to meet her family. There were plans to be made.

She was so focused, she forgot about the whole "reincarnation and psychologist" things for now.

The people watching shook their heads, and Rias' peerage followed her – as much as some of them wanted to stay and thank Issei for his surprising actions, Rias was their priority.

Mil-tan sighed. There was something important that needed to be discussed, so the whole group entered.

IIIII

Riser was fuming. At first… for years… he could say with no doubt that he did nothing wrong. That it was all Rias' stubbornness that was in the way of their marriage and of the greatness of their clans.

He had to admit now, though, that the words of the human who defeated him – and he considered it Issei's victory, even if he was not the King – made him see it all in a different light.

He could now say that, while his strategy worked on the other members of his harem, he could see how he would dislike if someone tried it on his Ravel.

But he wasn't angry at himself. He was in the wrong, but it was through ignorance. His parents didn't know. Ravel idolized him, and wouldn't see what was wrong if he was the one doing it. Same for the rest of his peerage. There was no one on his side to tell him the truth.

Sirzechs Lucifer, on the other hand…

He had lied a bit earlier. Glory for their families and Rias' appearance may have been a factor in accepting the marriage to someone that clearly disliked him, but the truth was that he kinda idolized the current Lucifer.

The fact that he didn't do anything, though…

"He brought Issei," Riser told himself. And yes, he did. But it was a big gamble. What would he do if the _human_ had failed?

Riser sighed. To be honest, there wasn't much Sirzechs could do, was there? Not without abusing his authority and risking a civil war.

…But he could have at least threatened beating him up.

He knew it was a bit irrational, but he couldn't help feeling bitter towards the brother of his ex-fiancée.

IIIII

Issei blinked.

That wasn't surprising. Everyone but Mil-tan blinked when the aspiring Magical Girl told them the proposal got from Serafall, the current Leviathan.

"Let me get this straight," Issei said. "One of the four Maous, one of the four most powerful demons known currently, who was here for the marriage of her colleague's sister and best friend of her own sister, also happens to like magical girls… but, being a devil, she already got the magic and so she got a tv show of her own."

"Yes," Mil-tan confirmed.

"So, after watching our battle, she just… offered to ask someone to help her turn you into an actual Magical Girl too?" Mil-tan nodded. "What's the catch?"

"Like I told you—"

" _Besides_ becoming her sidekick in her tv show?"

"…nothing else as far as I know."

"…nothing else?"

"Nothing."

"You sure?"

"As far as I was told."

Issei looked at Mil-tan. Mil-tan looked at Issei.

"Ok… if this is true, isn't it exactly what you wanted?"

"Yes, it is…" Mil-tan admitted. "But…"

"Buuut…?"

"I… don't want to leave you guys," Mil-tan admitted. "Before now, you were the closest person that knew of it that not just accepted, but actually helped me in the way to fulfill my dream. I don't want to repay that by leaving as soon as I get it."

Issei blinked. "But Mil-tan, from what you said, Serafall—"

"She asked me to call her Levia-tan."

"Levia-tan did not ask you to leave us."

Mil-tan blinked. "But…"

"And it's not like I did very much for you until now. In fact, besides the initial magic, a _healing_ magic by the way, and giving you your Gremlim, _you_ were the one helping us the most. You helped us train, you were essential in the fight…"

"You gave me this chance."

Issei stood up, putting his hands on Mil-tan's muscled shoulders. " _You_ gave yourself this chance. All I did was bring you somewhere the right person was able to see your potential."

"Hyoudou Issei, Magical Girl scouter," Katase joked.

Issei laughed a bit, but turned serious when he looked at Mil-tan again. "You deserve it. And we are very grateful you ever were with us.  
If you want to stay with us, I see no problem with it. If you do not want anymore, it is your right. But do not feel guilty for following your dreams if it doesn't hurt anyone."

Mil-tan took a deep breath. "I'd love to keep hanging out and training with you guys, if you'd still take me."

Taking a deep breath, Mil-tan stood up, nodded to everyone and left the room.

The room became silent.

"…I wonder how Magical Girl Mil-tan will do her transformation from now on," Issei said.

That broke the silence, and the girls figuratively pounced on him, Asia asking him about his health ("I'm fine now, Asia! Honest! No, I'm used to recovering completely after a small rest. I know it's not normal, but that's me."), Katase berated him about his stupid plan that put him in danger ("But it worked perfectly!"), and Murayama… just agreed with the other girls, as if not sure what she wanted to say ("Be honest with me, are you a tsundere? Oi, stop trying to hit me! Not helping your case!").

IIIII

Rias opened the door, hoping Issei was ready to go talk with her parents about the contract.

When the door opened, she saw Issei holding himself to near the ceiling of the room, having climbed the corner, Asia trying to heal him despite him being clearly healthy and one of the two sword girls holding back the other from attacking him.

She wished to ask what was going on, but it was too mesmerizing a scene.

IIIII

Ok, she wasn't before, but now Rias suddenly became nervous.

This was something many girls would go through, presenting a boy to her parents. The difference was that they would present their boyfriend and Rias her new fiancé, and said fiancé had more than enough reasons to be angry at her parents.

She also wasn't sure if _her parents_ had any reason to be angry at Issei. After all, he used a loophole in the contract to free her from the marriage they had agreed to, but they also knew she had been complaining about wanting to escape said contract for years.

Trying her best not to show it, she took a deep breath as Grafya opened the door.

The room was big, as was the dining table. Issei could say with confidence he never ate at a table that big.

Thankfully, the positioning of the other people on it showed that this was not going to turn into one of those tv sketches with people on opposite ends.

But that wasn't what drew his attention. What did so were the six maids present to serve the food.

In particular one with a particular type of heterochromia, one of her eyes a blue so light you could call it silver, the other red, her long golden hair held in place by a silver goat ornament.

He only noticed he was staring when he felt Rias pinching his back.

And pinch again harder when the woman winked back at him. Seriously, what?

Lucifer the current cleaned his throat, getting their attention.

"And here we have Hyoudou Issei, the hero of the hour," Sirzechs said, in a not-completelly-joking tone.

"And he has a question!" Issei said happily. "As you are one of the four Satans, are they named after Ha-Satan from the Book of Job, who tempts humanity to show God if they are worthy, or of Satanael from the second book of Enoch, who lead the fallen angels who rebelled against God by refusing to bow to Enoch?"

"Neither," Sirzechs answered, surprised. "We call ourselves that because there were once other four devil leaders that also went by Four Satans. We have no idea where _their_ version comes from anymore, but I'd guess it would be from Satanael since some demon clans come from fallen angels while Ha-Satan never really fell as far as I know."

Issei nodded.

"Well, it is great to see my new future son-in-law is both better-humored and more inquisitive than the previous one," said the father, someone that looked a lot like Sirzechs' evil twin. Because the main differences were the haircut and a goatee.

"Yeah, I got a problem with the fact _he_ was your previous one… like, why someone your daughter hated… uhm…"

"Zeoticus," the man answered. "And… well, it is not so much about the son-in-law, but about his _family_. You see, despite everything, we were in an impasse about what to do to keep other families to try and force us to marry Rias to them. For you see, the underworld, as much as my son tries to better this, still runs on family ties, and thus as long as she was available she was, in the eyes of most other families, goods to be traded.  
Now, _I_ never saw her like this, but denying everyone would eventually alienate us from the rest of the big clans… which was when my good friend, the current head of the Phenex clan, offered marrying her to his son.  
We had no idea his son would end up with that personality, or that he and Rias would not get along… but by the time we noticed those things, we were too deep to cancel it. I could not think of any other way to break the contract without one of the clans ending up in a bad position without the two in question making an agreement or _someone else_ taking Riser Phenex's place. Something that could backfire much worse."

Issei nodded. That fit with what Rias told him earlier.

"Excuse me, mister Hyoudou, I am Rias' mother, Venelana," said a woman that looked like a slightly older Rias with light brown hair.

"Please call me Issei."

"I was surprised with your conditions. Why add escape clauses to both sides, and the condition of neither the marriage can happen or the escape clauses be used until both are considered of legal age?"

"Well, madam, to be blunt, I did not challenge Riser with any thought of marrying your daughter, only of freeing her of a marriage she did not wish for. While the few times we spent together were… friendly enough… if you add it all up, I do not believe we know each other enough yet to take such a step. This marriage contract would be only to avoid others being made until she is of age to deny them by herself."

"I see," the woman said, disappointment clear in her voice. "Well, hope you do not mind if we keep treating you as our future son-in-law… just in case."

"If you want to."

"Issei-kun," Sirzechs called, "you helped us, you helped my sister, for no reason other than you didn't want her to be married against her will, is that it?"

"Yup."

"I see… And… is there anything you may want as a reward?"

Issei opened his mouth, but… Training, the group already trained under Mil-tan. Maybe he could ask Rias for secrecy and her group could help them.  
Mil-tan was already being turned into Magical Girl by Serafall Leviathan.

"How is going the research I ask Rias about how to produce Macca?"

"That was you?" Sirzechs asked. "Ajuka Beelzebub is studying it day and nght. He claimed he never saw a more efficient material for storing energy.  
But he isn't having much progress yet."

Issei sighed. "Well, that's all I can think of."

"Well, Hyoudou Issei, then Sirzechs Lucifer, and the House of Gremory, is in your debt."

Issei nodded. He knew that, if he denied that, it could be taken as an insult.

The talk after that wasn't much important in Issei's mind, just hammering the details of the contracts.

Although, near the end of the talks, the extra maid left. No one seemed to notice but him and, surprisingly, Rias from the way she relaxed at her leaving, though.

As they were finishing the talk and starting on a light dinner, he couldn't help but ask…

"Sorry if I'm being too curious, but where did the sixth maid go? She didn't come back yet."

"Excuse me?" Grafya asked, confused. "I only called for five of them to attend for you this meeting."

"Oh, then it wasn't my imagination then," Issei nodded to himself, before starting on the salad.

"But Grafya, I noticed the sixth maid too… wait, Ise, did you just say it _wasn't_ your imagination?"

"Yup," he confirmed. "She looked too much like a woman I once met that claimed to be actually Lucifer in disguise. I thought it weird you guys would hire someone that looks so much like her unless she invited herself here and the clothes were just not to draw attention."

Everyone looked at him in a mix of surprise and incredulity.

"…or maybe the Morning Star is into crossplay, wouldn't surprise me."

"Issei-san, this is… a big thing to claim. Rias claiming to notice this extra maid too confirms her existence, but to claim that she is the original Lucifer—"

"Not ' _original_ Lucifer', ' _actually_ Lucifer'."

"Are you claiming that the Lucifer I fought and got the title from was not actually Lucifer?"

"Did you fight a human with blond hair and red and silver eyes, a light-brown haired six-winged angel with horns and golden eyes, a six winged blue version of a horned demon with blond hair and pupil-less eyes or a twelve-winged combination of the three?"

"I did not," Sirzechs admitted. "I… I see. So the original Satans were not the original ones of their names…"

"I could not tell. Most of what I could tell you about the Lucifer I met was what I was told _by_ the Lucifer I met.

Oh, don't be so nervous, everyone. If no one noticed her there before me, chances are whatever she wanted to do was already over and done with. So it is kinda too late for that."

"Regardless, worrying about these things is my job," Sirzechs said, preparing to stand up and leave. "Please excuse me."

IIIII

"That went better than expected," said Issei to a still numb Rias.

"We were spied on by the original Lucifer."

"The _actual_ Lucifer. Remember, they are different beings."

"That just makes it—"

What that makes it can be easily imagined, but was never explicitly stated, because Rias's attention was draw to something behind Issei.

Turning around to look, Issei was surprised to meet a girl a couple of years younger than him, despite being a bit too busty for that age, with long, platinum hair and golden eyes, wearing a gothic Lolita black dress and with fake cat ears over her head.

"…" Not knowing what to say, Issei said the only thing that came to his head… "Mil-tan?"

"Mil-tan?" Rias repeated in surprise.

Mil-tan stroke a pose.

"Looking good, Magical Girl Mil-tan" Issei complimented, making the girl beam. "But why platinum hair?"

"Because black and white go with everything, but black hair is too common."

Issei nodded. Couldn't go against logic like that.

"So, how do you feel?" Issei asked, smiling.

"Tired," Mil-tan confessed. "Staying in this form takes a bit of my magic. I can stay for a couple hours right now if I don't use much of it besides that, but I need to train my magic more.  
Not that I'm disappointed, I actually expected it to last much less."

Issei nodded. It apparently wasn't a permanent transformation then. It was surprising it took such a small amount of magic to maintain then.

"And guess what! While in this form I get stronger _and_ my magic works better! Isn't that awesome?"

Issei nodded, eyes wide. "Ah, that explains why you need to turn back to normal. This form boosts you a bit, so there must be a drawback to maintain balance."

"And that's not all!" Mil-tan said with a smile, and raised her silver magic staff. "This isn't as powerful as your gauntlet, it doesn't have a mind of its own, but it can still record some magic for me until I find a human wizard to teach me to cast by myself, and can increase my magic power when it does. I already copied Dia to it. Judging from how much space it took, I guess it'd be able to hold five more," she finished, seriously.

Issei nodded. "Guess I couldn't expect any other number," he joked, before looking into Burroughs. "We can transfer some magic spells later if you want. It seems like your staff doesn't count in the summon app's limits."

Mil-tan nodded.

"Well, guess that's all we came to do here, then. Is everyone ready to go?"

"What?" Rias asked, disappointed. "Already?"

Issei shrugged. "I think we were here for quite a bit. My parents know, so me and Asia are ok, and Mil-tan lives by herself, but Katase and Murayama can't stay away from home for long."

"I see… Well, promise me you'll visit the ORC more from now on."

"Sure," Issei shrugged, not noticing Rias' disappointment on his unexcited answer or Mil-tan's smirk at seeing it.

IIIII

"Mom, dad, we're home!" Issei yelled as he, Alice and Asia entered.

"Issei dear, finally. You have a visitor," his mom said. "And she has been waiting for you for a while…" she sing-songed, making Issei's eyes roll.

He entered the house properly, eyeing the sofa and meeting a sleeping Raynare.

'Ah right, I forgot to tell her where we were going…' he thought, feeling a bit guilty. He wondered how long she had been waiting there for him.

Gently, he show her shoulder, making her eyes open.

Funny how, out of all the beauty he has been around of nowadays, the eyes started taking precedence over even his loved breasts… From Lucifer's two-toned eyes to Asia's green to Rias' acqua to Mil-tan's new golden ones and now Raynare's purple.

"Sorry, I was out doing something important. Did you wait for too long?"

"But you weren't in your training spot at the park…" Raynare said, still sleepy.

"Yeah, Gremory needed some help," Issei said, but inwardly made a note that their training was being watched. Raynare may be an ally _now_ , but her superiors _did_ try to make her kill him and Asia…

Rubbing her eyes a bit, she sat down more properly.

"The leader of the fallen angels, Azazel-sama, wishes to speak to you," she said, as seriously as her sleepy condition allowed her to. "He claims it is a peaceful conversation, though. He just want to chat while you two go fish."

Issei raised his eyebrows. "While we… go fish?"

Raynare shrugged. "He is a weird guy. Powerful but weird."

She then pulled him down on the sofa and rested her head on his lap, falling asleep again almost instantly. A confused Issei started petting her hair by instinct, not even noticing the jealous look in Asia's eyes.

IIIII

Louisa Ferre… or, now back in a male body, Louis Cyphre, strode through the doors. It was… nice to visit a world untouched by his greatest enemy, but it was time to go back to work.

The "current Lucifer" wasn't up to his standards of a leader with a head on his shoulders, at least in the short time he was there nothing much was shown, but it was better than the "old Maou" one. That one was the exact opposite of what he was working for, to the point of sharing their name was insulting.

Mixing a nice drink for himself from his personal bar, he went to meet two of his most trusted advisors.

Lucifuge Rofocale, the one in charge of the government of Hell… and of this world. For in truth, this world became nothing more than a part of the Abyss.

And Paimon, a King of Hell that, despite his personal power, is very loyal and obedient.

The world had a problem. A problem that threatened to endanger his domain. Threatened, but Louis doubted the threat had any chance of becoming a reality, since said threat became so by abandoning its main weapon. A weapon that Louis was shaping into his own to strike back.

And it seemed like the current problem, and his current solution to it, was getting on Paimon's nerves, if the way he was so impatient to talk was worth mentioning.

"You think too highly of the humans, my Excellency," Paimon said. "Sure, the General was once one, but first you let that Aleph kid go after denying your Excellency's offer of an alliance, and now this upstart."

Louis did not look insulted by the words, but he looked at Paimon with a slight disappointment.

"And do you recall what Aleph did afterwards, Paimon? After I… did not accept his repeated denial graciously, he defeated _me, Satan and YHVH_. A human defeated the three most powerful beings in existence.  
I suffered in my body for underestimating humans, thus I learned to be respectably cautious.  
In a similar way, with just a slimmer of power as a jump start my General was able to hold himself in battle against me."

Finishing his drink, Louis looked deeply in the empty cup.

"A person is like this cup. Empty, it is useless. Mixed wrong, we get something no one in their right mind would knowingly down. But, make the right mix…

I am making my own mix, Paimon. And hopefully _my_ version of it can cleanse our palate of this, as you call him, 'upstart'.

And if not… we can always let him do the most of the work and just finish the job for him."

"As you wish, your Excellency," Paimon bowed, but the expression on his effeminate face made it clear that it was out of loyalty and not out of being convinced.

Louis thought about it. Paimon was one of the most loyal, but Astaroth did anger Aleph once out of misplaced loyalty too.

…Ah. That should work.

IIIII

 **Yeah, I thought this big deal with there being a problem Issei would have to fix, but then noticed that, until now, nothing in the story hinted to it besides old Lucy telling Issei it would happen and it making Issei nervous.**

 **So I added this little thing at the end. Hope I didn't give too much of my future plans away.**


	9. Date with a Holy Sword

**First things first: I finished Persona 5.  
And one thing that is very important there (you know, besides it being an AWESOME game, I meant to this story): just like in SMT4A, it has not-instakill Light and Darkness skills. That makes them much more attractive to me – unless you use the costly ones, like Die For Me, instakills just have too low a chance of success.**

 **Which brings to my question…**

 **Should I rename the "new Hama" Issei learned through Asia's Angel to Kouha? True, they are different games, but SMT is a big series and I personally doubt it won't stay like this for future games too (although… Kouha was in P1 too…).**

 **Also, Review Time. Something that I do more than I like to, because I try to answer on PM but sometimes I can't.**

 **Someone sent a review I really wanted to reply to, but couldn't. Their PMs were blocked.**

 **First, they mentioned how there were just a few changes yet. True, but the small changes are significant. Raynare is alive and friendly, Asia is human, there are more human characters, Mil-tan is an actual magical girl now, the ORC is a less discriminative DnD table.  
True, the big changes won't happen until the chapter I have under the planning title of "the other boot", midway two arcs from now (which, for those counting, means is when the forces of Heaven are **_**actually**_ **going to appear, with the Excalibut arc in the middle). But I am trying to make small changes until then that will affect the future** _ **and**_ **be interesting.**

 **And second, they asked about power levels…  
I'm assuming Issei as level 16 but with plenty of battle experience, and Riser at level 26 but hyper-specialized. Mil-tan as level 18, the rest of the team at level 14, Rias' team at around level 14, most of Riser's peerage at around level 12 since Rias defeated them in canon with less people.  
I'm taking the four Satans as around levels 65 to 72. Why so low? Because there are gods in DxD that supposedly can fight them, and Odin in SMT4 is exactly 65.**

 **Oh, and sorry for the cliché fishing scene. But it fits this Issei so much I couldn't help but use it.**

IIIII

Azazel was the leader of the fallen angels. He fell due to the sin of Lust.

It was literal at the time, but later it evolved into other kinds of lust. Lust for knowledge, lust for entertainment. Still lust and not greed though, for despite his overindulgence he did not at all plan on limiting the fruits of it to himself.

One of the ways he indulges in it for entertainment was in the so-called "trolling".

For example, invite someone to an important discussion, but if it isn't completely time-sensitive waste a bit of time on something casual, like fishing.

Now, this Issei was a _very_ good fisherman. Enoug to worry most people about his plans for trolling him, the way he seemed to relax with a fishing rod on his hand. But he knew he was more and more frustrated, he just looked calm to the casual observer.

IIIII

Azazel, the leader of the fallen angels… was weird, in Issei's opinion.

His hair had two tones, black with blond bangs. And the goatee was also black. But the blond looked natural.

Now, one would think Issei should be used to weird things like this. He lived weirder situations in his life, and that one should not even be in the scale.

But "should be" is not the same as "is".

"…It's natural," the fallen, Azazel, said. "I'm a mosaic, where some of my cells have mutated."

"But how? I mean, weren't you hand-forged or something?"

Azazel shrugged. "Actually, angels _do_ reproduce, but it carries a high risk of falling in doing the act."

"Wait, so there is a mother and father Azazel somewhere?"

"Ok, you got me," Azazel laughed. "God wasn't exactly worrying about appearances when making the angels of old. While some are your classic blond with blue eyes, there are all the range until your girlfriend with black hair and purple eyes. Some people get the impression that being a fallen changes your hair color or something, but there are still some blond fallen, I think you even met one."

"Yeah, Mittelt. Also, Raynare is not my girlfriend, we didn't hang out enough to take that step yet."

Azazel looked at Issei, surprised. Then to the blushing Raynare on the solid ground.

"You know, most people who claim someone isn't their girlfriend wouldn't go into so much detail." And she looked more flustered.

Issei, on the other hand… "She is right there. Didn't want to give her the wrong impression," he answered with a shrug. "I mean, dating does not mean relationship, it only gives the mean to know each other to start one, right? I mean, I know my dream _still_ is to have a harem, but I have to know them enough… and they have to get along enough… and not mind being in a harem…" he looked at the fishing line, contemplative. "I don't know, it seems almost like an impossible dream now that I think about it."

"So you are giving up?" Azazel said, a bit of disappointment leaking from his voice.

Issei snorted. "Hell no. I'd rather think I'm not limiting myself just to it, though. I'm not giving up on if it happening, but I won't hold myself back if the chance to have just the one someone appears either."

And thus, silence reigned again.

And to make things worse for Azazel, Issei's problem seemed to _really_ have been his hair, since the boy was calm and enjoying the fishing now. Raynare was curious, but playing with the boy's cute young shadow seemed to be a good distraction to her too.

He sighed.

"I know," replied Issei, "they are not biting today…"

Issei couldn't see it, but Azazel felt his eyebrow twitch. Oh great, it backfired.

Better get to the meat of it.

"I noticed you didn't ask what I asked you here for."

Issei shrugged, turning around. "I guessed you wanted to figure out the human that defeated your subordinates. I thought fishing was your way of doing it.  
I admit I expected some more talking, though."

Azazel's mouth opened, but no sound escaped.

He slumped. Damn it, he was trolled back. And by accident.

"What do you know of the Holy Sword Excalibur?" Azazel asked Issei seriously.

Which made Issei really think about it.

He once found Excalibur, or at least Flynn did. And it was a great sword, meaning in a world taken over by demons that it had some history… so that history was searched.

"A sword made famous by its wielder, the second sword of King Arthur and the symbol of his kingship, being beautifully made and decorated. Besides that, the only thing the sword has of important is that it was given to him by an important water nymph, known as either Nimue or Vivian. What was important was the sheath, which seemed simple but had strong healing properties. As time went on, the sword, since it was named, became the famous one and the sheath was not mentioned in most retellings."

"A good answer," Azazel nodded to him. "In fact, in its base it is perfect… But unfortunately, origin is not all that decides if something is Holy anymore. Nowadays, people's cognition of the object has a huge part. Like a saint's garbs are considered holy because the saint once wore them, while at the time it was just clothes a saint happened to be wearing."

"Which means that," Issei finished, "since everyone seems to only know of the righteous King Arthur, Excalibur and that he searched for the Holy Grail, Excalibur must have become one of the strongest Holy Swords around."

"You are quick on the uptake," Azazel commented. "Yes, Excalibur itself is one of the most powerful Holy Swords around… So powerful that, even fragmented—"

"Wait, fragmented?" Issei asked, surprised. "Wasn't it returned to the Lady of the Lake?"

"So the story goes," Azazel answered. "But remember, most don't know of that, and thus a powerful Excalibur was created. Is it the real one? Doubtful. Is it even related? Hard to tell. But it is the one considered the Excalibur, and it was broken in seven pieces during battle – and those seven pieces reforged into weaker, but still powerful holy swords with different abilities: Excaliburs Destruction, Mimic, Rapidly, Nightmare, Transparency, Ruler and Blessing. Two of the blades are usually kept with the Catholic, Protestand and Eastern Orthodox churches, with Excalibur Ruler missing."

"And let me guess, something happened to them," Issei summarized, seriously.

Azazel nodded. "Do you remember how Raynare was working under orders? Well, they were not _my_ orders.  
One of ours, Kokabiel, went rogue, and took a bunch of his followers with him. He was supposed to be Raynare and the other three's superior on the way to me, so you can understand them thinking the order was mine."

"And probably more people under him were fooled too…"

"Under and above," Azazel sighed. "I only found out about his rebellion when a bunch of ours disappeared without returning but with no complaints from our enemies about their presence, and then our inside men in the Church came to us about three of the Excaliburs having being stolen."

"And you want me to give them the Excaliburs back to save your group from their counterattack," Issei finished for him.

"Precisely. You are human and, as far as is known, neutral. You are equaly friends with some of the devils at your school and, surprising since she tried to kill you, Raynare and her friends. And you probably have a vested interest in not letting Kokabiel turn the human world into a battleground that a return of the war would create."

Issei nodded. "I'll need more info. On what the swords he stole can do, on who is more likely to be with them, and on where it is most likely for them to be."

Azazel nodded, and took the boat to the shore. When on firm ground, he took a folder from his suit's internal pocket and gave it to Issei.

"The Excaliburs are Rapidly, that increase the user's speed, enough for a human to leave afterimages and evade attacks just as quick; Transparency, able to turn itself and the user invisible; and Nightmare, able to create illusions and control dreams."

"Great... Speed, stealth and illusions, whoever has them has become a real-world ninja."

"Funny you mention ninja. We believe his next step is coming to Kuoh and doing an assassination."

Issei took the pages about the swords, and began letting Burroughs copy them and analyze the data. "Go on, I'm listening."

"Not only the few clues we got sent them going in this direction, in this area there are the sisters of two of the Four Satans.  
We believe his plans are of restarting the war by killing one or both and blaming it on the church."

Issei could hear Raynare taking a deep breath, and feel the eyes of Alice on his back.

"Ok…" he said, taking a deep breath. "So I have two options, I either find a way to protect the two from a super-fast, invisible assassin able to create illusions, or I find the swords before they do it.  
And I guess you don't know anything else?"

"I have a couple names of people you could try to find," replied the fallen. "This is Freed Selzen. I think you are acquaintances."

It was a file on the guy he stole light swords and guns with light bullets from.

"He is the most likely candidate to be the user of the blades. He is a psycho and battle crazy, but was trained from a young age to be an exorcist, being considered a genius at 13. In fact, he was created artificially to be able to wield Sigurd's Gram. We tried to give him a place and control him, but it seems like Kokabiel has… other plans for him. Doubt he'd have trouble doing the deed if he put his mind to it."

Issei read the files. In them, Sellzen did not seem as unhinged as when they met. Was it because of his attempts to unbalance him, or was the man getting worse?  
Either way, Issei knew that this time the other male would not give him even close to as much openings.

"But how would he use the Excaliburs? Aren't holy swords kinda selective of their wielders?"

"Ah, yes… for that there is one of the shames of the church."

Issei was presented with another file.

"Valper Galilei," Azazel explained. "Kokabiel recruited him. I did not approve of his methods, but would not leave his research to rot, as a researcher myself. It seems that the only reason he did not fight me in my 'no using humans as test subjects' policy was because Kokabiel spoke in his ear about leaving with him since them.  
He was in charge of a project of the church to let anyone they decided be able to use a holy sword, focused on experiments with the Excaliburs. His project was successful, but he sacrificed all his test subjects to do so."

"This is bad, Azazel-san."

"Understatement."

"Probaly. A search in a whole town, trying to keep said search secret, and when it succeeds then to recover the items from the ones to steal it. This calls for the greatest, bravest warrior in the human world."

"I think you're exaggerating."

"I don't," Issei assured him. "Too bad I'm all you got right now."

"I wouldn't say 'all', but all my agents would bring up trouble if found out. You, on the other hand, at least is in good stature with the current overseers of the town. They'll trust your word that you only want to protect them."

"I'll be honest with you, Azazel-san… I _really_ doubt I'm capable of doing it," Issei explained seriously. "But I'll still do my best. You know what they say, when you got lemons you make lemonade, find a cute kid to sell the lemonade for you for half the profits, then use your share to buy what you really wanted instead of the lemons.  
I got my cute kid already," he said, pointing to Alice behind him, who waived, "and you got yours," he continued, pointing to a suddenly blushing Raynare. "Let's do our best together to make this lemonade tasty."

Azazel looked Issei in the eyes.

Then he blinked.

"…what?"

"I'll do my best, but also do your part. Our findings will help the other on our search. If you find something you can't act on reasonable, send me a warning so I can look into it. Raynare will be our contact."

"…and the blond gilr?"

"Alice is just a cute kid. Not all allegories are meant to be understood."

Azazel looked at a confused Raynare, and at a shrugging Alice.

"You are a bit random sometimes, aren't you…" Azazel finally said.

"Eh, maybe it is a coping mechanism. My life is a god damn mess. Or maybe I'm just a bit insane, who knows."

Azazel looked deeply into Issei's eyes… and his mouth grew into a grin. "I like it."

IIIII

"What do you mean, you got married to Gremory?" Raynare yelled.

Issei swallowed the bite he took of the hamburguer. "I did not. We are in a _marriage contract_ until she is old enough people can't make them without her approval anymore. We'll break it as soon as she is free to go."

"And who told you she'd want to break it?" She insisted.

"The contract was made so that _either_ side can break it without big consequences."

"And do you think _you_ will want to break it?"

Issei looked at her. In her eyes.

Took another bite of his hamburger.

Her eyes again.

Swallowed.

"Raynare… I never pegged you as someone to read Harry Potter fanfic."

Raynare got a weird mix of red and white.

"Nothing in our contracts makes us fall in love with each other, not even get along, or this whole situation with Riser wouldn't have happened. Nothing in it even makes us _meet each other_ before the marriage if we want to.  
If, for some reason you seem to imagine, she's want to keep it going, she'll have to convince me herself," he shrugged.

And then felt a hand clamp into his shoulder. Hard.

"You are taking me on a date. Right now."

Issei looked at Raynare.

Raynare blushed.

"…you want to try to kill me again?"

"No!"

"Oh, ok then. But can we go through different places in town? This way we can search on the way to them."

Raynare just nodded, avoiding his eyes.

"Alright then. First stop, the batting cages on the other side of town."

"The other side of town?" Raynare complained.

"Well…" Issei tried to explain, blushing a bit for how thoughless it could sound, "we are doing two things at once, and I thought it would be better if we started far away and walked back than the other way around."

Raynare grumbled for a bit. It made sense, and they didn't know how time-sensitive their objective was.

"But how will we arrive there?"

"Well, uhm… I have a bicycle…"

Raynare slumped. "Not even a moped?"

"I didn't think I'd need one," Issei tried to justify, "bicycles are good leg training and I never had to take someone with me somewhere before. …Save for Alice, but I can teleport her."

Raynare sighed. That made sense. "Alright, guess it is understandable. Let's go by bike then."

Issei took his bike from the rack and got into it, and Raynare sat behind him.

"Have fun," Alice giggled, before looking intensely into Raynare's eyes. "I'll be watching."

And thus she disappeared into thin air.

"…I had forgotten how much she scares me," Raynare whispered, hugging Issei from behind.

Issei said nothing. He had no problem whatsoever right now.

IIIII

"You're batting like you're trying to hit someone's head, Raynare-chan," Issei sighed.

"I'll hit _your_ head," she grumbled.

He sighed, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her hands to the bat properly. He was a bit worried he may be moving too fast, but her "eep" and blushing, he couldn't help it.

He tried batting a few times like that, giving the fallen angel a few examples of how to bat properly, before letting go.

"Wha… I'm not good enough yet!"

"Well, you need to try by yourself," Issei countered.

Raynare pouted at that, but Issei stood firm.

Then he had an idea.

"Hey Raynare-chan, what about, if you get a homerun, I do you one favor that does not involve me dying?"

"Damn it, stop bringing up—wait, any other favor?"

"That I can do by myself, and takes me less than a day to do," Issei added. "Need to keep it to things I can do without big problems."

Raynare blinked, then nodded.

And started hitting the thrown balls much more accurately.

"Well, _someone_ is motivated…"

IIIII

"No! Let me go! I can do it!"

"Damn it Ray, they are closing!"

"But… but…"

"You can keep training by yourself tomorrow if you really want."

"But… but…"

"Besides, now it is time for bowling."

"But… homerun…" She then blinked. "Wait, bowling? Who are you, cousin Roman?"

Issei's eye twitched.

IIIII

Issei's eye twitched.

Raynare did yet another strike.

It wouldn't be too bad, but she _threw_ the ball, despite Issei always telling her she had to _roll_ it. "It works better for me like this," she said, ignoring the fact most humans couldn't throw the heavy balls like she did.

Luckily no one seemed to have noticed, or if they did they were ignoring them. Human's ability to _avoid_ observing what doesn't fit their worldview could amaze Issei still sometimes.

IIIII

"It wasn't a competition and I had fun, who cares if I did it wrong?" Raynare asked honestly, hugging a sulking Issei from behind as they progressed on his bike to a club.

"It's not that," Issei said. "Well ok, not _just_ that."

"Oh?" Raynare teased, breathing hotly into his right ear. "Does Issei awakened a competitive streak and wanted to defeat if I played properly? Or maybe… you enjoyed teaching me a bit too much and wanted to do the same for bowling?"

Issei smirked. "The second definitely adds a bit to it, but those are not the only reasons either."

"Oh?" she asked, licking his ear now. "Then what do you say we skip the club and go to a more… private place?"

Issei huffed angrily, confusing the fallen.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no. I'd love to spend some more time alone with you, but…"

"But?"

"But we got company ever since we left the bowling aisle."

Raynare blinked then looked around. She saw no one, but that was the bad sign: only now noticed how no one was around them, for good or bad.

Trusting Issei's instincts, she released her wings and flew above the impromptu battlefield.

With her out of the battlefield, Issei gets out of his bike, and draws a sword handle from his pocket.

"So, are you going to keep hiding, or will you come and face me?"

"Oh?" said a laughing voice. A voice Issei recognized. "So the thieving shitstain wants to fight me for real this time?"

Freed Sellzen appears out of nowhere, on the other side of the road.

'Did… did he really show up out of nowhere? Was he invisible… and _gave it up_?'

Issei luckily held back from calling his opponent an idiot.

"Do you really think you can fight me? Hahahaha! Remember that you only won last time by running away?"

"I had things more important to deal with than an idiot like you," Issei waved him off. "But I heard you got a few toys that could make this interesting."

"Oh… oh ho ho. So you heard about it…"

That said, Freed advanced, and was parried by his own old Light Sword.

IIIII

Suicidal.

Suicidal was the fighting style he was using.

Suicidal was using a fighting style he only heard about in the middle of a fight.

However, Issei had no other choice.

He moved his sword to block Freed's. Then moved the sword to block the next attack, before his opponent even started it.

Because he had left himself opening.

Because he was _always_ leaving himself open.

Issei was slow. Slower than his mind. Slower than Flynn. And definitely slower than Freed's current boosted speed.

He would usually be forced to tank the damage, but Issei was also weak. He was keeping a low profile while searching (and for the dates), so he unfortunately was unable to wear proper gear.

So he had to improvise.

He was a pervert, and thus he played echii games sometimes. One of them is Fate/Stay Night.  
In it, there is a character that is able to best faster fighters not because of skill, but of his fighting style.

His fighting style is full of holes. Holes that his opponents instinctually could not ignore, and thus aimed for. Holes he knew where they are, and could move to block before they even started moving to them.

Issei was trying to reproduce Archer's fighting style in the middle of a battle just by the descriptions in the visual novel. A suicidal approach about a suicidal fighting style.

But as far as he knew it was his least suicidal option right then.

"Why won't you just die?" echoed in his ears as his frenzied opponent swung his blade. No clear planning or higher thought, just instinct and desire to kill. Luckily for Issei it was that instinct his defense strategy was based on.

Freed was faster. Freed was stronger. But Freed was using the Holy Sword's power to be so. And such power could not come from nowhere, Freed would tire sooner or later. Issei just hoped it was before himself.

"GAH! What the hell! Son of a bitch!"

 _Or_ Raynare could use this time to almost kill Freed herself with a spear of light. That was an option too.

Too bad his instincts were so good, enough to overpower his bloodlust and save him – but that also left him open.

Issei left him no chance to attack Raynare back, advancing on his distracted foe with a swing of his own. Freed once more jumped back, but…

He _jumped_ back.

Issei took advantage of this, shooting at him while he was in the air and unable to dodge.

Not even Excalibur Rapidly can move fast enough to block properly from a bullet, and Freed yelled in a mix of anger and pain as it bit into his shoulder.

Issei was hoping that this would limit his opponent to only one blade, since he already used the power of Excalibur Transparency before their battle.

He forgot the type of person he was fighting against.

With a cry of fury, Sellzen opened his priest-like coat, revealing two more swords under it.

'They are all here,' went through the heads of both Issei and Raynare.

Sellzen picked a blade, apparently without much thought, and advanced. Part of this was good, meanng Sellzen had no plans of using the sword's power in the fight. And the way he moved showed it was more due to rage than actual ability to dual-wield, meaning his fighting would be sloppier.

Part of this was bad, since even in a sloppier fighting style, he was still a swordman wielding a blade in each hand. Issei had only been keeping up until now due to copying a fictional character, and now this.

"Maragi!" he yelled. Time to add magic to the mix.

A circumference of a few meters of radius around him just burst into flames with no other warning.

Issei juped to the side by instinct, just as the flames disappeared. He just avoided a strike from Freed, who either was in the middle of the attack already and decided it was best to keep going, or was so incensed he'd rather attack than not be burned.

Either way, fire did not seem to stop him.

Regardless, using fire was flashy and would draw attention. Better not to use it right then.

So he used Mazan, a tornado spinning around him and throwing Sellzen into a tree.

"Argh! Stop using your cheap magic and fight me like a man!"

"Funny," Issei answered. "It seems to me that I'm fighting more like a man than you, mister 'I need a sword to make me fast enough to win'."

Sellzen yelled in rage and advanced again, only to be met with yet another Mazan.

"Fine," Freed spat. "You want to play this game, let's play this game."

Issei was hoping Freed took his bait, and would stop using Excalibur Rapidly's speed.

Well, Freed dropped Excalibur Rapidly, and grabbed his third sword with that hand. Issei guessed he didn't think anyone around would be able to wield it, so why bother securing it?

But, unlike Issei's wishes, he did not stop using a sword's powers. He just started using the power of the other two.

Freed disappeared… and the field was covered in Freeds.

And to make matters worse, Excalibur Nightmare was clearly deserving of the name. He _knew_ that they were fakes, but his instincts still screamed that he was surrounded by a mob. Yet when he used Mazan, none moved.

Sellzen was probably invisible and using Excalibur Transparence and Nightmare in conjunction to hide the signs of him being thrown around.

So he used Mazio.

The images flickered, and he could hear the sound of someone being socked from behind him. So he wasted no time, and ran away in the direction of Rapidly.

Sellzer took his time following, though.

Mostly because of the light spears falling between them.

"Ah, so the shitstain really got a shitty crow looking out for them, I see," he half yelled half laughed while he advanced between Raynare's shots. But he seemed unconcerned.

Issei grabbed the Excalibur with his left hand, the Light Sword activaded on his right. His idea was to slide into a defensive position.

Instead, he ended up splayed on the ground.

The blade did not budge.

"Surprised, shitfucker?" Freed asked with glee. "Only those chosen can even budge a Holy Sword. And you clearly were not."

Issei shrugged. "It's not like I need to wield it. I just need to keep it with me away from you."

And then the sword disappeared. And Freed Sellzen's eyes bugged in surprise, before he advanced in a yell of rage.

Issei could not wield it, but Burroughs apparently could store it no problem.

Freed was so blind in his anger that Issei was able to kick him in the face, since the fake priest was aiming for stabbing his neck.

That seemed to wake him up.

It also gave Issei the time to stand up again, so yay.

"You fucking son of a bitch! I'll kill you next time."

'Next time?' Issei thought, then his eyes widened.

Freed Sellzen disappeared in front of his eyes. Soon, he couldn't feel his presence anymore.

Not like he'd trust his instincts in that, since Nightmare seemed to be able to fool them.

A few minutes later, Raynare got impatient and landed besides him.

"Ok… what just happened?" she asked, confused. "Out of nowhere Freed dropped a sword and you were acting like you had no idea where he was.

"I tried to trick him into stopping using Excalibur Rapidly's speed. He decided to use another's power instead," Issei said between heavy breaths, the adrenaline leaving him. "You said you could see him?"

Raynare nodded. "It was pretty weird, how you started looking around while he just moved behind you."

"Good, great. You had attacked him before, and I doubt he'd just forget about it. That means he probably can only use the power of one sword at once." He took a deep breath before continuing. "He dropped Rapidly as bait, and used Nightmare to pretend he used Transparency while making many illusions to confuse my battle instincts. Thanks for the save."

"Don't mention it," she replied. "And what about when the sword disappeared?"

"I sent it to my armory," he explained as good as he could, not knowing himself where Burroughs kept his weapons. "Just because I can't lift it doesn't mean I couldn't take it from him."

"So, victory?" Raynare tried to be optimistic. Issei nodded, but did not seem happy.

"But now that he escaped he'll probably be more careful not to be found. And now he knows I can do this."

Raynare shook his shoulder. "Hey, it's more than we expected so soon. And all because Freed may be a genius at what he does but is still an idiot."

Issei sighed, but smiled. "Still a victory, uh?"

"That's the spirit," Raynare smiled. "I'll take you home."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?" Issei joked.

Raynare rolled her eyes and threw him his bicycle, before holding him under his arms and carrying him to his house.

And thus the two left, careful but still smiling.

IIIII

"Welcome hom—what is she doing here?" Rias asked as soon as Issei opened the door.

"That's my line," Raynare replied.

The sudden tension in the room could be cut with a knife.

"We were on a date," Issei shrugged, ignoring Rias' wide eyes and Raynare's victorious smile. "But what about _you_?" he echoed the fallen's question.

"W-well," a red-faced Rias tried to answer, "you saved me and all, so I thought about coming here and making you dinner… and maybe you'd let me live here since I'm living alone… Your parents agreed…"

Issei looked at her… and shrugged. "If they already agreed, I see no problem."

Rias looked victorious to a surprised Raynare, who grumbled something about not thinking of that.

"Well," Issei said, trying to ignore his thoughts about the implications of those looks – they were probably a faction rivalry think, nothing more, he told himself, "if no one minds I'll go take a bath for now."

"Hey Ise-kun, do you mind if I stay for dinner?" Raynare asked as he was leaving.

"I see no problem, make yourself at home."

"Oh, I will," she agreed, waiting until he was out of sight before she and Rias started glaring at each other.

IIIII

 **So, Freed Sellzen… in my personal opinion, he is probably Issei's closest thing to a rival at this point. He is experienced, he is devious, he is a survivor.**

 **But he is still a bit of an evil idiot, favoring being cruel to being efficient. Evil Overlord's List he doesn't follow.**

 **The thing about only being able to use one Excalibur's power at once, no idea if it is true. It just made sense to me.**

 **So, Issei got Excalibur Rapidly, but can't use it yet. Freed got a wake-up call, or maybe his higher-ups did and will force him to think more.**

 **And Rias and Raynare are apparently developing a rivalry, but ignoring they probably aren't the only ones after their mutual goal.**

 **Hope I'm not rushing things too much. This chapter feels a bit short. Do you guys think it feels short?**


End file.
